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PHYSICAL PERFECTION 


Autographic Copy No. 



















Physical 

Perfection 


By 

SYLVESTER J. SIMON 


Originator of 

Simon’s Natural Development 
System 


For 

“A Sound Mind in a Sound Body ” 


Willis MacGerald & Company 
Chicago 











UBKARY of CONGRESS* 
two Copies rtetetvci? 

AUfe iO laOS 





Copyright , 1908 

By 

Sylvester J. Simon 





Introduction 


F ROM the beginning of time any man who 
has violated or disregarded any law of 
Nature has had to pay a penalty for so 
doing. When man’s sufferings for digres¬ 
sions from natural living became known as “dis¬ 
ease,” then began the first system of treatment 
for physical ailments. As disease became more 
prevalent through heredity and through further 
departure from natural living due to “civilization” 
and other causes, the variety of ailments began to 
multiply and has so continued. The number of 
systems of treatment grew in proportion and has 
continued to grow. 

In the past we have had divine healing, laying 
on of hands, incantations, blistering, blood-letting, 
and numerous other forms of treatment for physi¬ 
cal ailments, real or imaginary. For many years 
men and women have been taking drugs, in 
liquid, pill, and powder, for relief from their af¬ 
flictions, and have resorted to surgical operations, 
massage, electricity, and such-like mechanical 
treatments. Still more recently, vibration, light, 
color, osteopathic, chiropractic, magnetic, Chris- 





10 


PHYSICAL PERFECTION 


tian Science, and many other systems of treat¬ 
ment have become more or less popular. 

Every one of these schools has its plausible 
line of argument, and every one has a large fol¬ 
lowing of practitioners, patients, and believers. 
To one entirely unprejudiced, with brains enough 
to do his own thinking, it must be difficult, after 
careful analysis, to decide which, if any, of these 
systems is entirely right and scientific. 

In an introduction of this nature and length it 
would not be practicable to go into detail in re¬ 
gard to what in the author’s opinion is correct or 
incorrect, wholly or partially, in one or another 
of the systems mentioned. He will, however, ad¬ 
vance the following propositions, on which most 
of the adherents of most of the theories or prac¬ 
tises referred to will agree, however at variance 
may be their methods: 

(1) Disease, weakness, and deformity—except 
as caused by accident—always are chargeable to 
violation of one or another of Nature’s laws, on 
the part either of the sufferer himself or of his 
parents or other ancestors, whose sins thus are 
visited upon the children “unto the third and 
fourth generation.” 

(2) In order to relieve a diseased or unnatural 
condition, methods in accordance with natural 
laws must be employed. 


INTRODUCTION 


11 


As to these fundamental postulates, there is 
practically unanimous agreement; the question 
on which “doctors disagree” is—What methods 
are really in accord with the laws of Nature? 
The two principal schools are diametrically op¬ 
posed as to method. One declares that “like 
cures like” (“similia similibus curantur”), and the 
other the reverse of this. 

Others contend that both systems are wrong, 
that all drugs are poisonous, and their adminis¬ 
tration unnatural. Such substances, they assert, 
cannot be assimilated by the system, but only add 
to the burden of foreign or waste matter already 
in the body and necessary to be eliminated 
through the excretory organs. 

There are still others who recognize neither 
medicine of any kind nor the existence of a phys¬ 
ical body or of matter itself. Such theorists, ac¬ 
cordingly, do not take the trouble to discriminate 
between the various schools of medicine. As they 
do not recognize the physical, there is for them 
no physical disease, and it follows that no cure 
at all is necessary for something which is non¬ 
existent. Countless volumes have been written 
for and against each and all of these various be¬ 
liefs, theories, and practices. As has been inti¬ 
mated, it is not within the scope of this book to 
take up in detail the merits or demerits of any of 





12 


PHYSICAL PERFECTION 


them. The author in the present volume goes 
only thus far, and in this most adherents of the vari¬ 
ous schools will go with him: 

(1) He believes in following the laws of Na¬ 
ture both for the maintenance of health and for 
the alleviation of disease. 

(2) He agrees that the mind is subject to 
weakness and disease, as is the physical body. 

(3) He recognizes the fact that when the body 
suffers the mind must suffer also, on account of 
the interdependence between physical and mental. 

(4) The author has been forced to the con¬ 
clusion that in our cities there are few men and 
women who live naturally in the matter of occu¬ 
pation, sleeping, diet, or exercise. He believes 
in giving first place to Nature’s own scheme of 
healing, and contends that the sensible, scientific 
thing to do in fighting debility or disease is to get 
back to Nature. 

(5) He holds it an axiom of therapeutics that 
that which caused an ailment must be got rid of 
before one can regain normal health, or, in other 
words, that the sufferer, to effect a cure, must 
correct his habits of living. 

(6) That whether or not medicine does good, 
too little medicine is better than too much. 

So much for the author’s health-creed. In the 
pages following will be found the application of 



INTRODUCTION 


13 


that creed to every-day life. Broadly speaking, 
there is but one disease—ill-health. Ill-health is 
weakness, manifesting itself now in one part of 
the body, now in another. Strength, vitality, nor¬ 
mal functioning of every organ—that is health. 
Our problem is to restore and preserve health of 
body and brain by strict observance of Nature's 
laws. The present volume sets forth the author's 
theory and practise, lays down rules of living ac¬ 
cording to Nature's laws, and shows how disease 
may be prevented or cured without the use of 
medicine, surgery, or mechanical appliance. Since 
the author’s System applies both to specific ail¬ 
ments and to general conditions, the scope of this 
treatise is not only therapeutic, but hygienic as 
well. 







Contents 

CHAPTER I 

Health.23-25 

Health merely a state of general good 
condition. Maintained by discipline of 
one’s body. Regained, when lost, by the 
practise of natural living 

CHAPTER II 

Physical Culture..26-29 

What Physical Culture embraces and 
what it is not. Error in developing one 
set of muscles at the expense of others. 

Making one’s daily occupation a means of 
physical exercise. 

CHAPTER III 

Childhood.30-35 

Importance of acquiring in youth habits 
that make for health and long life. Even 
“diseases of childhood” may be avoided 
by natural living. Duty of parents prop¬ 
erly to instruct their children. Vicious 
habits. Treatment at critical age of 
puberty. 

CHAPTER IV 

Boyhood and Youth.36-39 

The building-up period. Importance of 
sports and danger in too-close application 
to study, labor, or business. Laying a 
strong foundation for the business of life. 











16 


PHYSICAL PERFECTION 


CHAPTER V 

Longevity.40-45 

Why should the American average of 
longevity be so low? Simple life and 
freedom from worry prolong life. Physi¬ 
cal changes in advanced age. Simple rules 
for warding off old age. Why not live to 
be a hundred? 

CHAPTER VI 

How to Carry the Body.46-50 

Natural postures in sitting, standing and 
walking should become habitual. Effect 
of unnatural carriage on the spine. Effect 
on general health. 

CHAPTER VII 

Breathing and Pure Air Exercises.51-56 

Rarity of correct breathing. Necessity of 
using the full lung-capacity. Breathing 
exercises without proper muscular devel¬ 
opment may be positively harmful. How 
proper breathing reacts beneficially on 
every tissue and organ. 

CHAPTER VIII 

Sleep—Rest—Insomnia.57-62 

Sleep Nature’s provision for cell-repair. 

Rest possible without unconsciousness, or 
even cessation of action. Change of occu¬ 
pation one means of resting. Sleep-in¬ 
ducing drugs cannot cheat Nature. In¬ 
somnia, its perils and the cure. 






CONTENTS 


17 


CHAPTER IX 

Bathing.63-66 

How cleanliness prevents and cures dis¬ 
ease. Bathing enables the skin to func¬ 
tion as it should and relieves other organs 
of unnatural strain. Cold water the best 
known tonic. Danger in hot baths. 

CHAPTER X 

Clothing.67-73 

Protection the fundamental idea in cloth¬ 
ing the body. Ventilation an essential. 
Discomfort unhealthful. Danger in tight 
lacing. Summary of rules for sensible 
clothing of the body. 

CHAPTER XI 

Foods.74-83 

“Man is as he eats.” Effect of food is not 
only physical, but mental and moral as 
well. When and what to eat. When and 
what not to eat. Medicinal value of cer¬ 
tain foods. Danger in too much meat. 

Foods that keep the body young. Bene¬ 
fits of occasional fasting. 

CHAPTER XII 

Liquids and Stimulants.84-90 

Coffee and tea, like alcoholic beverages, 
are poisons. Any degree of stimulation 
must be followed by the same degree of 
depression. Hot cocoa revives and nour¬ 
ishes without subsequent depression. How 
to drink water and milk. 








18 


PHYSICAL PERFECTION 


CHAPTER XIII 

Obesity. 

Corpulence an abnormal state, and a more 
serious ailment than is generally believed. 
Cause of many other diseases, including 
gout, diabetes, heart weakness, and apo¬ 
plexy. Fleshy persons not the best insur¬ 
ance “risks.” Causes of obesity—preven¬ 
tion and cure. 

CHAPTER XIV 

Leanness. 

Leanness sometimes constitutional, some¬ 
times due to habit of life. Diet for correc¬ 
tion of excessive leanness. Exercise avail¬ 
able for the same purpose. 

CHAPTER XV 

Stomach and Bowel Disorders. 

Indigestion and intestinal troubles strike 
at the very foundation of health. Malnu¬ 
trition a predisposing cause even of such 
diseases as consumption, scrofula, and 
cancer. False diagnosis easy, owing to 
ensuing complications. 

CHAPTER XVI. 

Coughs—Colds—Catarrh. 

Nature and causes of coughs and colds 
generally misunderstood. Impure air, not 
cold air, responsible for these ailments. 
True cure consists in raising the general 
vitality. Natural treatment, including cold 
fresh air, of first importance. 


91-96 


97-99 


100-106 


107-109 






CONTENTS 


19 


CHAPTER XVII 

Nervous Ailments. 

Whatever the specific manifestation of 
nervous affection, the direct cause in 
every case is deficient vitality. The treat¬ 
ment, accordingly, must be such as will 
promote bodily vigor. 

CHAPTER XVIII 

Lessons in Physical Culture. 

Natural development exercises for old, 
middle-aged, and young men and women, 
and for children. Exercises for the devel¬ 
opment of various muscles. Exercises for 
the obtaining of greater strength, vigor 
and vitality. Exercises for the acquire¬ 
ment of poise and grace in bearing and 
carriage. Exercises for the relief of bod¬ 
ily ailments and the mitigation of de¬ 
formities. 



110-112 


113-203 








Index to Exercises 

Before practising any of these exercises, read carefully 
“Suggestions Regarding Exercises” on page 115. 

Names of Muscles, Organs, or Parts 

Exercised; Also Ailments and Numbers of Lessons 

Weaknesses to be Relieved or Exercises 

Abdomen . 7 , 18, 19, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 

Arms . 5 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 13, 30, 31, 41 

Back, Muscles of. 2 , 3, 4, 7 , 13, 14, 21, 30, 31 

Backache, or Weak Back.4, 7, 14, 21, 25 

Biceps .9, 11 

Bladder Affections .19 

Blood (See Circulation) 

Bowels (See Constipation) 

Breathing Capacity (See Lungs) 

Bust, To Develop the. 1 , 2 , 3, 40, 41 

Calf of Leg.23, 24, 41 

Carriage, To Obtain Graceful.4, 26, 28, 30, 38 

Chest, Flat or Hollow. 1 , 2 , 3, 6 , 13, 22 , 31, 40, 41 

Circulation, To Improve.14, 21, 22 , 24, 30, 39 , 41 

Cold Feet.24 

Congestion in Head.15, 17 

Constipation. 

4, 7, 14, 19, 21, 25, 28, 30, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 41 
Corpulency (See Obesity) 

Costiveness (See Constipation) 

Digestion (See Stomach Troubles) 

Dyspepsia (See Stomach Troubles) 

Elimination of Waste Material. 39 

Emaciation (See Leanness) 
















INDEX TO EXERCISES 


21 


Extensor Muscles.28 

Fatness (See Obesity) 

Feet .24, 38 

Fingers .8, 10, 11 

Flesh, Superfluous (See Obesity) 

Gout . 24 

Graceful Carriage or Poise. 

.4, 15, 16, 17, 26, 28, 30, 38, 40, 41 

Hands .8, 10, 11, 31 

Headache .15, 17 

Hips (See Thighs) 

Indigestion (See Stomach Troubles) 

Intercostal Breathing.3 

Intercostal Muscles.3, 18 

Kidney Affections.4, 14, 19 

Knees .27, 28 

Leanness .4, 5, 7, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 20, 24, 30, 31 

Legs .23, 24, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 38, 39 

Lifting Muscles .9, 11 

Liver Affections .18, 19, 39 

Lungs, To Increase Capacity of. 

.1, 2, 3, 5, 13, 22, 28, 31, 38, 39, 40, 41 

Neck .15, 16, 17 

Nervous System.31, 41 

Obesity 4, 7, 14, 21, 22, 25, 28, 30, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 
Pelvic Organs and Muscles (See Sexual Organs and 
Muscles) 

Poise (See Graceful Carriage) 

Pulling, Muscles Used in.9 

Pushing, Muscles Used in.9 

Quadriceps .23 

Rheumatism .8, 26, 27 





























22 


PHYSICAL PERFECTION 


Rope Skipping Exercise.38 

Running Exercise.39 

Rupture .29 

Self-Defense, Art of.8, 9, 11 

Sexual Organs and Muscles. 

.7, 19, 21, 23, 29, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 41 

Shortened Limb .26 

Shoulders, To Develop or Strengthen. 

.1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 20, 22, 31 

Shoulder Blades, Pains Between.1, 2, 6, 20 

Sitting Posture, Correct.41 

Stiffness in Legs or Knees.26, 27 

Stomach Troubles .7, 30, 39, 41 

Suppleness (See Graceful Carriage) 

Thighs .7, 14, 21, 23, 26, 28, 38 

Thinness (See Leanness) 

Triceps .10 

Typewriter’s Cramp.8 

Varicose Veins . 26 

Waist, To Reduce or Build Up. 

4, 14, 30, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 

.8, 10, 11, 12 

.8 


Wrists . 

Writer’s Cramp 























I 


Health 

H EALTH is generally understood to sig¬ 
nify the perfect, harmonious play of 
all the functions of the body. In other 
words, health is a state of general 
good condition. 

“There is scarce any folly, 1 ” as has been said 
with truth, “against which warnings are of less 
efficacy than the neglect of health.” Yet, it is 
an easy matter for one to keep in this condition 
by simply obeying the natural laws of life. And 
it is just as easy to disturb the harmonious func¬ 
tioning of the organs and become diseased through 
sheer laziness and indifference to the proper care 
of the body. Hfealth is ruthlessly thrown away 
by the continued breaking of some of what seem 
to be the minor laws of our physical being, but 
which prove by the consequences to be vital laws. 
Overindulgence in eating and drinking, the use of 
narcotics, insufficient sleep, and the yielding to the 
many useless and petty dissipations that fill modern 
life are the sins against health most commonly com¬ 
mitted. These, together with lack of exercise, of 
pure air, of baths, and of pure food, lie at the 





24 


PHYSICAL PERFECTION 


foundation of nearly all diseases to which flesh is 
heir. 

It is possible to have a healthy body and a happy 
disposition, but one must work for them. One 
cannot expect to have superb vigor without effort. 
Nature gives with a lavish hand to such as are 
worthy, but exacts hundredfold penalty for any 
infraction of her laws. She accords no considera¬ 
tion to ignorance or weakness. 

It is criminal negligence to permit one’s self to 
become weak or sick, too fat or too lean. This is 
all the more true because the remedy is always at 
hand, and we alone are at fault, if we fail to apply 
it. And what is this remedy? It lies in the dis¬ 
cipline of our own bodies. Develop your heart and 
lungs by getting all the pure air you can by day and 
night, judiciously exercise your muscles, learn how 
to bathe your body, and use prudence and com¬ 
mon sense in the matters of eating and drinking. 
That is all that is necessary for the preservation 
of health and the development of body and mind. 
Moreover, in nearly every case that is all that is 
necessary, too, for the recovery of lost health and 
its maintenance after recovery. 

What of the thousands of medicines that are 
widely advertised and the drugs that are recom¬ 
mended for the accomplishment of this same re¬ 
sult ? What, indeed ? It is beginning to be realized 



HEALTH 


25 


that attempted drug cures for most diseases are 
dismal failures. The orderly workings of Nature 
are not reversed by the action of drugs and nos¬ 
trums. When the body becomes diseased, it is not 
these chemical agents alone that will enable it to 
recover what it has lost. What chronic disease 
yields to drugs only? Drugs may modify the 
symptoms of some specific ailment, but they will 
not restore lost health. 

Names that are applied to the many different 
diseases are more formidable than the diseases 
themselves. No matter under what name a disease 
is classified, in nine cases out of ten it will yield 
readily to hygienic and rational methods. 







II 


Physical Culture 

P ROPER Physical Culture is not merely a 
matter of exercises for the development 
of particular muscles of the body or of 
the muscular system as a whole. Phys¬ 
ical Culture includes every known curative and 
hygienic method of promoting the welfare of 
the body. There are many systems of exercises, 
almost all of which were originated for the sole 
purpose of increasing strength by developing the 
muscles. Of course, when muscular development 
is the sole object sought, motions which call into 
play the muscles of the body will achieve that ob¬ 
ject if practised systematically and regularly. But 
one certain system of exercises cannot be made 
applicable to everyone indiscriminately, if the best 
results are to be expected. The exercises should 
be adapted to the individual condition. There is 
a vast difference in the physical strength of differ¬ 
ent men. One man may have well-developed arm 
muscles and undeveloped leg muscles, whereas, in 
another, the development may be just the reverse. 
Naturally, the first man would have to exercise 
the muscles of the leg to make them proportionate 
in dimensions with those of the arms, and the 


PHYSICAL CULTURE 


27 


other person would have to exercise the arm mus¬ 
cles in order to make them symmetrical with the 
leg muscles. The object to be aimed at in the de¬ 
velopment of the muscular system is symmetry. 
Spasmodic training should not be attempted. 

The system of exercises illustrated in this work 
has been evolved after fifteen years of experience in 
treating all kinds of people with overdeveloped and 
underdeveloped muscular organizations, and also 
those afflicted with obesity, leanness, diseases of 
the nervous system, and other affections, so that I 
know positively that it is possible for any person 
not only to develop himself symmetrically, but also 
to improve his health and strength. But one cannot 
by exercising alone recover lost health. With the 
exercises must be included hygienic methods of liv¬ 
ing. These are Nature’s ways of keeping the body 
in normal condition. 

Exercising for muscular development alone is 
bad practise. It ranks with the habit of overindul¬ 
gence in eating and drinking. Huge muscles alone 
do not show “condition,” nor are they to be taken 
as an indication of vitality. Muscular strength 
should grow with vitality, and not at its expense. 
Strength which is built up at the expense of vitality 
is a source of weakness and danger. Of the first 
importance in the care and treatment of the body 
is temperance—temperance in everything. Tern- 







28 


PHYSICAL PERFECTION 


perance especially should be observed when devel¬ 
oping the muscular system. Although every muscle 
of the body demands its full quota of work in order 
that symmetrical development may result, still the 
danger of overindulgence in any exercise should 
be borne in mind. 

Exercise consisting of labored movements of the 
muscles for the purpose of accomplishing a cer¬ 
tain object are not to be compared with those ex¬ 
ercises which are taken as recreation—in other 
words, play. One of the best methods of exer¬ 
cising is to make exercise of your work, if it be 
such as requires muscular effort. The housewife 
usually can get all the exercise she needs to main¬ 
tain a normal physical condition by making exer¬ 
cise of lifting chairs, sweeping floors, and perform¬ 
ing other domestic work. There are so many va¬ 
rieties of work engaged in by men and women 
which require muscular effort that in their per¬ 
formance practically every muscle is called into 
play at some time during the day. By making 
exercise of such work, surprising results will be 
accomplished in the way of building up a good 
and lasting physique. 

The health, happiness, and usefulness of our lives 
depend largely upon exercise. I have taken espe¬ 
cial pains in this book to lay out a system that can 
be adapted readily to the requirements of any in- 


PHYSICAL CULTURE 


29 


dividual. If this system be followed out regularly, 
not only will additional health and strength accrue, 
but also the knowledge of how to take care of the 
body and keep it in its best condition throughout 
life. 












Ill 


Childhood 

T HE child must depend in great measure 
upon his parents for his physical, moral, 
and mental development; his vitality, 
strength, and general health. If the 
parents overlook the welfare of the child, with¬ 
holding the care and training that are so impor¬ 
tant in the years of helplessness, the child must 
ever after bear the burden of ill-health. 

Nature teaches the baby how to get its own ex¬ 
ercise. The infant’s exercise is instinctive. To 
take a child and put it through a course of physical 
culture is little short of cruelty. Such a course 
overdevelops the muscles, and this overdevelopment 
in after years may prove a menace to health. The 
young delight in action, and the exercise that is 
given to the muscles in the ordinary play of child¬ 
hood is amply sufficient for the purpose of growth 
and development. The child’s exercise should be 
in no way restricted. It follows that he should not 
be bundled up in tight and uncomfortable clothing 
that will interfere in any way with his free move¬ 
ments. 

When the child begins to walk, then is the time 
to train him to carry his body correctly. At that 


CHILDHOOD 


31 


age the bones of the body, particularly those of the 
breast, are soft and pliable, so that it is essential 
that he be taught to stand and sit properly in order 
that breathing may be normal. Teach the child 
to carry the breast somewhat high; then he will 
breathe correctly, and the habit thus formed will 
be carried throughout life. 

Remember that the impressions received during 
childhood usually last a lifetime. The child should 
be taught to “hold himself together.” See that he 
holds his spine in a perpendicular position, and do 
not allow him to let his body collapse. Teach him 
to sit erect, and then he will walk erect. The child 
never of its own accord will develop correct car¬ 
riage—and could any lesson be more desirable ? 

The child should be encouraged to stay out in 
the open air as much as possible. Air is a marvel¬ 
ous invigorator, and fresh air will soothe and 
quickly quiet a fretful child. The child’s sleeping 
room should be well ventilated and air should be 
permitted to circulate through the room during the 
night. That night air is harmful is a fallacy. 
Games played in the open air are of manifold bene¬ 
fit. Not only do they provide fresh air and exercise 
in plenty during the period of growth, but they de¬ 
velop readiness of action, self-reliance, confidence, 
and keenness and activity of mind—qualities that 






32 


PHYSICAL PERFECTION 


will be much in demand in after years when the 
grim realities of life have to be encountered. 

The age at which children are most liable to con¬ 
tract the so-called “children's diseases” is from one 
to five years. Between those years fevers, measles, 
whooping cough, tonsilitis, diphtheria, and numer¬ 
ous other diseases easily are contracted and rapidly 
develop. There is less chance of the child’s catch¬ 
ing these diseases after the age of five years, and 
up to that age care should be exercised to render 
him less susceptible to them. However, it is not 
at all necessary that any child contract such dis¬ 
eases. To prevent it, vitality should be kept high 
and all means to this end should be invoked. These 
means are simple, but effective. They consist mere¬ 
ly in plenty of sunshine, out-of-door exercise, well- 
ventilated bedrooms, daily baths, loose and suitable 
clothing, a proper quantity of nourishing and whole¬ 
some food—no coffee, tea, or other stimulant—at¬ 
tention to the skin and excretory organs, and plenty 
of sleep. This regimen is the most common-sense 
and rational, because it steadily increases vitality to 
its highest degree. 

During the first few years of school life, many 
children become nervous and irritable, a condition 
not in evidence during the earlier years of their 
life. Competition, examinations, and the rewards 
and punishments incidental to school life do much 


CHILDHOOD 


33 


toward impairing their health. If a child becomes 
nervous and excitable as a result of his school 
duties, a complete suspension of study should fol¬ 
low, so that he may recuperate and build up his 
vitality in the open air. That any child should be¬ 
come nervous and excitable as a result of a few 
hours’ confinement every day only emphasizes the 
importance of pure food, fresh air, and exercise. 

The arrival of puberty is another important 
period, particularly to girls. Girls arrive at this 
stage of life somewhat earlier than boys, and it is 
at this time that girls cannot stand the physical and 
mental strain that most boys of the same age under¬ 
go. It seems to be the tendency of teachers and 
school authorities generally to increase the work 
of children between the ages of eleven and four¬ 
teen, because children develop more rapidly, both 
physically and mentally, during these years than 
they do at any other stage of their growth. Instead 
of school work being increased at the age of puberty 
it should be diminished. The girl should have at 
least three or four days’ complete rest every month. 
All excitement and violent exercise should be 
avoided. 

Care should be taken of both boys and girls in 
the adolescent period, else they will become weak¬ 
ened in nerves and physique. Especially is this true 
of children who are sent to boarding schools. This 







34 


PHYSICAL PERFECTION 


is the age at which their eyes should be opened to 
the knowledge of evil and vicious habits. They 
should have imparted to them instruction and 
advice upon which they can depend when assailed 
by the stories of corrupt-minded companions. If 
parents would but recollect the thoughts and feel¬ 
ing and impulses that stirred within themselves at 
this period, they would have a sure guide in giving 
the young the benefit of their experience. 

If girls up to the age of puberty can play with 
boys of their own age, indulging in the same sports, 
why may they not do so after that age? It is a 
well-known fact that girls are somewhat stronger 
than boys up to the age of twelve, after which they 
fall behind them. This is not only due to the differ¬ 
ence in their physical structure, but also to the fact 
that the idea is prevalent that girls, from a sense 
of modesty, should refrain from running, jumping, 
and indulging in the sports followed by boys. This 
is wrong. It is just as important that girls develop 
their muscular systems as it is for boys. Girls can 
indulge without harm in basketball^ lawn tennis, 
fencing, hockey, dancing, running, swimming, and 
numerous other play-exercises. Swimming is the 
best all-round exercise, and is a useful as well as 
healthful accomplishment. The only time that 
hardy exercise should not be indulged in is during 
the period of menstruation. 


CHILDHOOD 


35 


As was said in the opening of this chapter, im¬ 
pressions made during childhood will linger a life¬ 
time. If boys are taught the harmful effects of to¬ 
bacco, liquors^ drugs, and of the indulgence in evil 
habits, there will be far less likelihood of their ac¬ 
quiring such practises as they grow up. If the 
average man who reads these lines will look back 
over his life and try to recall the time when his 
parents impressed upon him the harmful effects of 
bad habits, he will probably not be able to recall 
such an instance. Very few parents do open the 
eyes of their children at a sufficiently early time to 
the evil that exists in the world. It is impossible 
to calculate the amount of suffering and misery 
that would be avoided if parents uniformly taught 
their children the results of indulging in stimulants 
and vicious habits. 

The boy’s idea of manliness is strength, and how 
to acquire it and retain it should be instilled into 
his mind day after day while he is young and grow¬ 
ing. He will thank you in after years for the les¬ 
sons which enabled him to build up a strong and 
sturdy constitution. Girls should be taught habits 
of cleanliness and daintiness, the practise of which 
means so much to them throughout life. These 
matters are not trivial, but of vital importance. 
Upon them depend the welfare and progress of the 
child and the happiness of the parents. 







IV 


Boyhood and Youth 

T HE first instinct of a child is to move— 
kick out his feet, and move his body and 
arms; at first feebly, but from day to 
day more vigorously. And this is how 
the tiny mite of humanity takes his first “exercise” 
and grows and thrives, according to the natural law 
of his being. For the first few years he is con¬ 
stantly running, jumping, kicking, yelling—he is 
the very embodiment of motion. When he reaches 
youth he takes more vigorous exercise, as suitable 
to his growing years and increased strength and 
vitality. During childhood and youth sports and 
games are dominant in his thoughts and usually his 
ideal is some famous athlete or strong man whom 
he would emulate. Youth take to their sports and 
exercises instinctively and have in all ages. 

Courage, loyalty, self-sacrifice are inherent qual¬ 
ities of boyhood and youth, and these should be 
cultivated and maintained by practising manly 
sports. The keen competition in grammar school, 
high school and college life does much to develop 
the youth in all those qualities that go to make the 
virile young man. The rivalry and combativeness 
in play exercises—those exercises in which the 


BOYHOOD AND YOUTH 


37 


mind takes as full a part as the body, such as run¬ 
ning, jumping, swimming, shooting, basketball, 
baseball, football, hockey, boxing, wrestling, fenc¬ 
ing, riding, rowing, bowling, tennis and the count¬ 
less other light and strenuous exercises at the com¬ 
mand of the modern youth—create self-confidence 
and reliance in his strength and ability to take care 
of himself, and these qualities are essential for a 
successful life. To those boys who have this op¬ 
portunity for exercise I have nothing to say, except 
to caution them against overdevelopment. During 
these years of exercise Nature has done her part 
toward enabling the boy to grow to manhood with 
the developed body and mind of a man, by implant¬ 
ing in him this instinct for play, an instinct which 
is stronger than any other in childhood and youth. 

But after youth come the years of study for a 
profession, or, it may be, a life of work in a fac¬ 
tory or office, and gradually sports and games that 
were once the chief pleasure in life become “work” 
and are slowly forgotten. At the age of manhood 
the body has been developed, strength and energy 
have been stored away, and life becomes a routine 
of steady, unrelenting pursuit of wealth, which 
causes the young man to overwork and use up his 
stored strength and vitality, thus weakening his 
hold on life. And it is against this that I want to 




38 


PHYSICAL PERFECTION 


warn all young men who would live a healthy, hap¬ 
py life. 

Physical activity means life — abundant, enjoy¬ 
able life; inactivity means stagnation, sickness, 
premature death. What a difference there is be¬ 
tween a fully developed, alert man and an unde¬ 
veloped, nervous man! When I speak of “fully de¬ 
veloped” I do not mean a person with huge, knotty 
muscles, for muscles do not necessarily indicate 
vitality, but one who shows that his muscles have 
been produced by exercise—muscles that will stand 
a strain when put upon them — and one whose 
countenance reflects the vitality within him. There 
is no true, lasting health without exercise. Stop 
exercising and health immediately commences to 
fail, perhaps not at once perceptibly, for one draws 
first upon his reserve strength and vitality, but he 
will become aware of his decline sooner or later. 
And then to doctors for treatments for various 
kinds of disorders. Accordingly, if you would en¬ 
joy greater working capacity, would always be 
alert mentally; if you desire maximum earning 
power, freedom from disease, and the healthiest, 
happiest existence, stick to your exercise. 

The young man who starts in the serious busi¬ 
ness of money-making after school life, may, if he 
is in position to do so, join clubs devoted to ath¬ 
letic exercise and sports. He may have the leisure 


BOYHOOD AND YOUTH 


39 


to walk to business and home again. Those who 
are employed as clerks and are confined long hours 
may take exercise in their rooms in the evening 
and morning. 

Exercise only for the symmetrical development 
of all the muscles of the body. Select exercises to 
develop groups of muscles instead of single mus¬ 
cles. Each exercise should be at a given rate of 
speed, and the mind should be concentrated on each 
movement. If not used to exercise, devote to it 
only about ten minutes morning and evening, and 
gradually increase the length of time as you gain 
in strength and health. Thirty minutes in the morn¬ 
ing and thirty minutes in the evening is about the 
maximum amount of time to spend in exercising 
even after you have become used to it. If you will 
keep up exercising morning and evening and at the 
same time live hygienically, you never will become 
subject to a hundredth part of the ordinary ills. 

Every exercise illustrated in pages 119 to 203 may 
be performed with safety by anyone in ordinary 
health. Remember, after exercising, to take a 
cold sponge bath and a good rub. If you are not 
in the best condition, imagine what it would mean 
to you if you could regain your health. And it is 
an easy thing to do this. It requires but an effort 
of the will to begin taking regular exercise; after¬ 
ward it will become second nature. 











V 


Longevity 

S tatisticians ten us that the average 

term of life amongst inhabitants of the 
United States is 35 years. The many in¬ 
stances, however, of men and women who 
reach the age of 100 or more should make us 
pause and ask why American longevity should be 
so low. 

It is a significant fact that our centenarians are 
all persons of simple habits. It is equally signifi¬ 
cant that such persons are not as a rule on intimate 
terms with “dull care.” Someone has remarked 
that worry kills more people than war and pesti¬ 
lence combined. So if we seek for examples of 
longevity among the men and women who work 
and worry and fret as many out of the twenty-four 
hours of the day as they possibly can, we seek in 
vain. The formula for living to a good old age 
may be reduced to two simple propositions: First, 
live as nearly as possible according to Nature's 
laws. Second, don’t worry. 

To be old in years does not necessarily mean to 
be old in body and in mind. As an illustration, one 
of our young-old men, Captain Diamond, of Oak¬ 
land, California, at this writing in his 119th year, 


LONGEVITY 


41 


declares that he feels considerably younger than 
he did at 56, when he really began to live. The 
Captain is not the old and decrepit individual one 
would be likely to look for in one of his years. His 
nerves are steady, hie walks many miles without the 
support of a cane, and his eyesight is better than 
that of the average person half his age. His sys¬ 
tem of living includes a simple diet of fruit, vege¬ 
tables, nuts, and cereals, and he does not indulge in 
tobacco or alcoholic stimulants. 

In India, in China, in Japan, in America amongst 
the Indians, and in other countries, amongst people 
who live out-door lives and are not troubled with 
the anxieties of business responsibilities so oppres¬ 
sive in our cities, centenarians are so common as 
to excite little comment. This is true, also, among 
the peasants of all the European countries and 
among people everywhere who have not the means 
to enable them to die young. 

Technically speaking, old age, or senility, is due 
to an increase of mineral matter in the body, and a 
corresponding decrease of the animal matter. One 
of the effects is to render the bones less pliable and 
the cartilages less elastic as they gradually lose the 
animal substance of which they are partly com¬ 
posed. The bones become more and more ossified, 
or chalk-like, and more brittle. It is on this ac¬ 
count that when an old person breaks a bone, the 









42 


PHYSICAL PERFECTION 


member knits with great difficulty, if at all. This 
general ossification results, also, in a hardening and 
thickening of the blood vessels, which condition is 
known as sclerosis. The calcareous deposits enter 
the blood itself and accumulate more and more, 
thus retarding the circulation just as accumulations 
of any kind would slacken the flow of a stream of 
water. 

Naturally, one of the first organs to suffer on ac¬ 
count of this condition is the heart, which becomes 
clogged up after a time to such an extent as to im¬ 
pair its efficiency. As the heart propels the blood, 
which carries nourishment to every organ and part 
of the system, it follows that the body must receive 
less and less nourishment with advancing age. 
“Getting old,” then, is nothing more nor less than 
the progress of this ossifying process. We have 
already noted the effect of this process on the heart. 
When the heart stops beating, death ensues. 

As a matter of fact, all the other organs of the 
body may be alive when only the heart is dead. 
One evidence of this is the fact that the hair and 
the nails continue to grow for some time after 
death. It is this fact that has led many scientific 
experimenters, bent upon discovering the cure for 
eld age, to devote their energies toward finding 
some means to keep the heart young. The reason 
that the, efforts of all of them have failed is that 


LONGEVITY 


43 


they have aimed at “doctoring” the heart itself, 
without seeking to remove the cause of the organ’s 
degeneration. The only discovery of any impor¬ 
tance along this line has been that an injection of 
a saline solution will in many cases increase the 
heart action temporarily, and even cause the heart 
to start beating after it apparently has ceased func¬ 
tioning. This discovery, when made, was heralded 
by the sensational press as one whereby the dead 
could be restored to life. Of course, if life had en¬ 
tirely left the heart this seeming phenomenon could 
hardly be brought about. The injection of salt 
has a stimulating effect for the moment, but can¬ 
not produce lasting results, and we must look in 
another direction for a prevention of senility. 

To maintain the vitality of the heart, the blood, 
and the whole organism, we must look to Nature 
rather than to the materia medica. To prevent the 
undue accumulation of earthy matter in the system, 
we must, for one thing, subsist upon foods which 
do not tend to form lime, or an excess of other 
mineral matter. The foremost of such foods are 
fruits of all kinds. Next are the juicy vegetables, 
such as spinach, lettuce, beets, carrots, asparagus, 
onions, tomatoes, celery, string beans, etc. The 
water in these vegetables aids elimination of mor¬ 
bid accumulations and the dissolution of calcareous 
deposits. There is another reason equally potent: 









44 


PHYSICAL PERFECTION 


Vegetables such as those mentioned, and fruits, es¬ 
pecially those that grow close to the ground, are 
rich in organic salts, which aid in keeping the 
building-up process of the body on a par with the 
tearing-down process. This is best appreciated 
when it is best understood—to put it in another 
way—that old age is due to the repair of the body 
falling gradually behind the wasting process. 

Another important consideration in this connec¬ 
tion is that as the organic salts are usually found 
directly beneath the outer covering of the fruit or 
vegetable, as in the apple and the tomato, these 
foods should be eaten preferably in their natural 
state, or at least with the skins on. 

In general, habits of living and of exercising 
which tend to keep up the vitality of the body, as¬ 
sist in promoting longevity. This for the reason 
that the higher the degree of vital energy the 
quicker must be the circulation of the blood, and 
the better the circulation the more readily must ac¬ 
cumulations of mineral matter be eliminated from 
the system as they appear therein. Then, too, the 
better the vitality, the better must the digestive and 
assimilative organs perform their duties, and the 
better, as a consequence, must every organ and 
part be nourished to keep up with metabolism, or 
tissue change. 

As a matter of fact, this entire book is a treatise 


LONGEVITY 


45 


on how to stay young, and any of the physical ex¬ 
ercises given in the back of the volume will aid in 
this direction. Where there is no specific ailment 
to be overcome, the exercises especially recom¬ 
mended for the maintenance of youth are those 
that will bring into play as far as possible all the 
muscles of the body. Such exercises promote the 
general circulation, stir all the organs of the body 
to lively action, and prevent the coatings of such 
organs, as well as the arterial and nerve coats, or 
sheaths, from becoming hardened before their time. 

It is a well-known fact that worry, anxiety, fear, 
excitement, or any undue and continued emotion 
tends to deteriorate the brain cells and the nervous 
system, eating up their vitality, retarding circula¬ 
tion, and interfering with the digestive functions 
and incidentally with the action of every internal 
organ. This is the explanation of the statement 
hitherto made that the mental conditions named 
are a fruitful cause of senile decay. 

The fountain of youth, then, is to be found only 
in Nature herself. Obedience to her laws is the 
only panacea. Follow these laws faithfully, and, 
especially if you start early enough in life, there is 
no reason why you should not reach the 100th mile¬ 
stone. And who can tell that you will not become 
one of the ancestors of a race that shall account 
two centuries an ordinary lifetime? 








VI 


How to Garry the Body 

W ITHOUT control of the muscles 
there can be no healthful, correct, or 
definite position of the body when 
standing, sitting, walking, or rest¬ 
ing, and in order to obtain this control of the 
muscles one must learn the correct postures of the 
body and train the muscles to support them. Then, 
by practise, the various muscles used will get into 
the habit of doing the work that is required of 
them. Proper carriage soon will become second 
nature and quite independent of conscious effort. 

In the first place, one must learn to stand cor¬ 
rectly. The weight of the body should be over the 
center of the feet, somewhat equally divided be¬ 
tween the heel and the ball of the foot. In order 
to obtain this position, stand against a wall, with 
the feet turned out at an angle of about 60 degrees; 
then bring against the wall the heels and as much 
of the body as is possible when perfectly erect, 
drawing back the head to within a quarter of an 
inch of the wall, with the chin slightly drawn in. 
In this position it will be observed that the chest 
will not stand out with undue prominence, although 
it will be somewhat expanded, while the abdomen 


HOW TO CARRY THE BODY 


47 


is drawn in. The shoulders and hips touch the wall 
and the head is erect. This is the correct pos¬ 
ture of the body while standing, and an effort 
should be made to hold it at all times when in 
that position. (See Fig. 1.) 

Very few individuals have perfect spines. This 
is the result of improper carriage of the body, 
especially when young and growing. The habit 
of carrying the body improperly often results in 
deformities, such as one shoulder higher than 
the other, one hip higher than the other, a low 
chest, or a protruding abdomen. These deformi¬ 
ties, especially in the young, easy of develop¬ 
ment, are hard to overcome in later life. But im¬ 
perfect spines are more often the result of a 
faulty sitting posture; and this incorrect position 
interferes to some extent with the functions of 
the organs and nerves supplied by them. Sitting 
in a faulty position interferes especially with 
respiration, circulation and digestion. The vital 
organs are cramped, which makes them more 
susceptible to disease, the muscles are weakened 
and a longer period of exercise and greater pa¬ 
tience are required to bring them to their full 
elastic strength and pliability. 

When a man is sitting, his spinal column should 
be as erect as when he is standing. He should be 
able to pivot his body from the hips, and in order 




48 


PHYSICAL PERFECTION 



Fig. 1 


Fig. 2 


* •N\\\<NVs ' 























HOW TO CARRY THE BODY 


49 


to make this possible he should sit as far back in the 
chair as he can without allowing the back to touch. 
The muscles must be brought into play in order to 
maintain this position, and it is only by practise that 
the position will become habitual. Then the very 
act of trying to maintain this position will in itself 
bring the muscles into play and will give them no 
little exercise; whereas, after they have become 
used to it, they will no longer require conscious 
effort to keep them in their proper place. 

It should be remembered that, whether sitting 
or standing, the muscles should not be relaxed to 
the extent that the trunk will drop upon the spine. 
If you know how to sit and stand correctly, you will 
naturally walk correctly. The essence of the mat¬ 
ter is to train the muscles to carry the body. 
Walking calls for precisely the same carriage as 
that required for correct standing, with the chest 
and face slightly in advance over the extended foot. 
The ball and the heel of the foot should strike the 
ground almost simultaneously. The free and easy 
stride, with the arms swinging slightly, will soon 
become a habit, and the walk will become more of 
a pleasure than ever. 

There can be no grace of carriage or appearance 
of strength, health, and freedom until all the mus¬ 
cles do their share of holding the body in its proper 
position. Beginners will find that when they com- 






50 


PHYSICAL PERFECTION 


mence to practise to obtain the correct carriage of 
the body they will need to make considerable effort 
of the will to prevent the muscles relapsing into the 
old position. However, after a little persistent 
effort the muscles will become strengthened and no 
fatiguing exertion will be required. 

The repose, grace, and suggested strength and 
health of a proper carriage will amply compensate 
for the time spent in acquiring it. 




VII 


Breathing and Pure Air 
Exercises 

L IFE depends absolutely upon the act of 
breathing. Life would become extinct 
after a few minutes without air. An 
infant commences life with a gasp for 
air and an old man feebly exhales his last 
breath and expires. Oxygen is the most important 
requirement of the body, and man must depend 
upon correct breathing, which gives the body its 
full share of oxygen, for his continued vitality and 
power of resistance to disease. The average per¬ 
son’s blood is in a state of starvation for want of 
oxygen. The great percentage of men do not 
breathe correctly. Especially is this the case 
amongst adults. They use only about one-fifth of 
the capacity of their lungs. Every child is born 
using its full lung capacity and retains this power 
during childhood and youth, if it gets its full share 
of play and exercise, but loses it when by reason of 
sedentary occupations it is not required to run 
about, exercise, or undergo other exertions where 
the automatic processes of the lungs fill them to 
repletion with air. Then, too, when a person does 


52 


PHYSICAL PERFECTION 


not fill his lungs with air, he uses the upper-lung 
instead of the full-lung movement. 

The mechanics of respiration are made manifest 
through the elastic movements of the lungs and the 
activities of the sides and bottom of the thoracic 
cavity in which the lungs are contained. The 
process is automatic. The ribs are moved in res¬ 
piration by two superficial muscular layers, known 
as the intercostal muscles. In active inhalation the 
muscles expand the lungs so that a vacuum is 
produced and the air rushes in, in accordance with 
the well-known law of physics. Every movement 
in the process of respiration depends upon the res¬ 
piratory muscles, without the aid of which the lungs 
cannot expand. Properly to exercise the lungs is 
not only to develop these important muscles, but 
to improve digestion, circulation, and the general 
health, by enabling the lungs to eliminate a larger 
percentage of the waste of the body in the form of 
that poisonous vapor which is constantly generated 
in the system through chemical process. Carbon 
dioxide (commonly known as carbonic acid gas) 
is a waste product of the blood. This vapor, unless 
carried off in the act of breathing, is extremely 
deleterious to health. All exhaled air contains a 
large proportion of this gas and of other organic 
substances which are deadly poisons. 

Respiratory exercises and correct breathing are 


BREATHING AND PURE AIR EXERCISES 53 


absolutely essential to the prevention and cure of 
pulmonary troubles. As a matter of fact, the air 
treatment of consumption is the only one that is re¬ 
liable, and it is altogether necessary that the person 
inclined to lung and nasal troubles should live in 
the open, day and night. It is vitally dangerous for 
a weak-lunged person to breathe impure air. The 
oxygen in a large room is quickly exhausted when 
the doors and windows are shut, excluding fresh 
air. 

The importance of exercise in relation to the 
lungs is shown by the fact that the average person, 
when resting, will draw into the lungs not much 
more than 400 cubic inches of air in a minute, al¬ 
though while walking the quantity for the same 
period is increased nearly double. Further, in the 
course of a moderate run or other exercise the 
amount of air inhaled in considerably over 2,000 
cubic inches per minute. 

To breathe correctly is an art practised by only 
a few. Most people breathe, not because they know 
how, but because they must, lest oxygen starvation 
take place. A certain sort of breathing is auto¬ 
matic, controlled by the reflex action of the mus¬ 
cles. Proper breathing, on the other hand, is whol¬ 
ly voluntary. One can go without food for days 
and weeks, without sleep and water for a long pe¬ 
riod, but must breathe continually. With the de- 



54 


PHYSICAL PERFECTION 


velopment of lung capacity and the increase of pul¬ 
monary strength that follows upon proper breath¬ 
ing, invariably comes better general health. Dia¬ 
phragmatic (or abdominal) breathing should be 
practised throughout the day. The breathing should 
be deep and prolonged, and though this may 
in some instances produce a slight feeling of 
dizziness at first, that is simply a proof that the 
lungs are in need of exercise. After ordinary ex¬ 
piration, a certain amount of air remains in the 
lungs, and even when the lungs are subjected to 
a violent expiratory effort, some air still remains 
undisturbed. So it should be especially borne in 
mind that equal pains should be taken with ex¬ 
halation as with inhalation, as in exhalation the 
carbonic acid gas is expelled from the lungs, and 
the more thorough the effort, the better the 
lungs are prepared for a deep inhalation of that 
source of all life, oxygen. 

It is hoped that the reader, when practising 
deep breathing, or during any exercise, will re¬ 
member that all breathing should be through the 
nostrils, and not through the mouth; that ca¬ 
tarrh is one of the results of improper breathing; 
that windows should be kept open at all times in 
order to insure a supply of pure air; that when 
one is sleeping the supply should be increased if 
possible; that when the lungs are weak it is ab- 


BREATHING AND PURE AIR EXERCISES 55 


solutely essential to breathe long, deeply, and 
often; that it is a fallacy to think you can blow 
into a mechanical device in order properly to de¬ 
velop lung power; that it is not necessary to go 
to extremes in taking any kind of exercise be¬ 
cause someone else does, for there is danger at 
those points; that “straining” is not “training” 
and that to “make haste slowly” is to make haste 
surely and is a good old adage to follow when 
seeking to increase health and develop the body. 

Diaphragmatic breathing develops the lungs, 
strengthens the diaphragm and abdominal mus¬ 
cles, and stimulates all the vital organs of the 
body. The diaphragm is that muscle which sep¬ 
arates the lungs and heart from the region of the 
stomach and liver. It is an involuntary muscle, 
having the power to assist the lungs in receiving 
and expelling air. When practising deep breath¬ 
ing, stand in the correct position, with the body 
slightly inclined forward. Expel as much air as 
possible from the lungs, lift the chest by muscu¬ 
lar effort, then hold it fixed in that position, no 
matter what kind of exercise you take, whether 
voluntary deep breathing or physical exercise. 
Take a deep breath very slowly. The diaphragm 
will descend until the lungs are full. Hold the 
breath until you count six, then slowly exhale 
(keeping the chest raised and fixed). After you 


56 


PHYSICAL PERFECTION 


have practised this exercise a few times you can 
hold the breath until you count ten. This will 
give you a respiration of about six times a min¬ 
ute, which is normal. This deep breathing should 
be practised throughout the day. 

Other beneficial breathing exercises for the 
strengthening and development of the lungs are 
those which stimulate heart action. The respira¬ 
tory exercises just described, combined with 
some other form of exercise which quickens the 
action of the heart, will prove of the utmost 
value. Aside from play-exercise, such as run¬ 
ning, skating, dancing, swimming and rowing, 
Exercises 25 and 28, to be found at the back of 
this book, are of particular value in that they are 
adapted to strengthening the lungs as well as the 
muscles. Imitation of rope-skipping without the 
rope is another good lung and muscle-developer 
combined; also stationary running. Exercises 1, 
2 and 3 are chest developers, and so are valuable 
for the lungs. 





VIII 


Sleep—Rest—Insomnia 

R EGULAR periods of rest and sleep are 
indispensable to life, giving, as they 
do, an opportunity for general nutri¬ 
tion to make good the energy lost dur¬ 
ing the day. One can rest in other ways than 
by sleeping or by ceasing entirely from active 
work. Change of employment gives rest. If 
yours is a mental occupation and your nerve 
cells become exhausted you will be benefited 
by taking physical exercise in the evening or 
during the day. If you are following an occu¬ 
pation that requires physical exertion, then you 
can rest your muscles by indulging in mental 
recreation, such as reading, studying or attending 
lectures and theaters. Of course, this is nothing 
more or less than resting the body and brain by 
making them do other than their regular work, 
so it follows that rest may be obtained simply 
by changing one’s daily occupation. 

Relaxing mentally and physically for even a 
few minutes at a time during the day will do 
much good and enable you to resume work with 
renewed vigor. If you are fully occupied eight 
or ten hours a day, performing work that re- 



58 


PHYSICAL PERFECTION 


quires laborious mental or physical effort, then 
complete relaxation of the body and mind should 
be practised every evening. Hurry and bustle 
every hour of the day and night are suicidal, and 
you will soon learn to enjoy the half-hour or 
hour of mental and physical relaxation every 
evening after a heavy day’s work. Further, such 
relaxation is a forerunner of sweet and sound 
slumber. 

Sleep is as essential to the life of the human 
as it is to animal or plant life. All vegetable mat¬ 
ter must sleep—man must sleep—the whole 
world must sleep—regularly. There is a limit to 
the mental and physical powers of man, and 
when this limit is reached exhaustion sets in, and 
there is but one process by which rehabilitation 
can take place; that is sleep. 

The sleeping room should not be used as a liv¬ 
ing room, working room, or study. It should be 
a room for sleeping only. It ought to be kept 
sweet and clean and given over to air and sun¬ 
light all day long. No lights should be left burn¬ 
ing in the sleeping room at night. Especially 
should lamp-light or gas-light be avoided, be¬ 
cause one light will consume more oxygen than 
several persons. The sleeping room should be 
used by but one person. Never sleep two in a 
bed. Go to bed the same time each night and 


SLEEP—REST—INSOMNIA 


59 


arise at the same hour each morning. Cultivate 
regularity. One cannot sleep well on a full stom¬ 
ach ; so do not eat just before going to bed. Sleep 
until you have your sleep out. It is but a matter 
of habit how many hours you shall sleep at night 
—whether it be more or less than eight hours. If 
you are exhausted and allow yourself to sleep un¬ 
til you wake up without being called you will 
awaken when the nerve-cells have been replen¬ 
ished and the vital forces of the body renewed. 
If you make it a practise to sleep between cer¬ 
tain hours you can habituate yourself to getting 
the necessary rest in the time you allow your¬ 
self, even though it be no more than seven hours 
each night. 

The position in which to sleep also is impor¬ 
tant. Some find that lying on the right side rests 
them more than lying in any other position. Oth¬ 
ers sleep on the left side, or on the back or stom¬ 
ach. For my part I have always found that I can 
obtain more rest sleeping on the right side or the 
abdomen. Sleeping on the left side is out of the 
question, because it is harmful. The heart, being 
situated on the left side, would have a weight of 
viscera pressing upon it, and would have to ex¬ 
ert itself more in order to keep alive the circula¬ 
tion than it would were the body resting on the 
right side. Never sleep with the arms above the 


60 


PHYSICAL PERFECTION 


head. This is a habit that is hard to break and 
positively injurious. 

Sleeplessness is usually the result of the man¬ 
ner in which the day is spent, provided one is not 
afflicted with chronic insomnia. Sitting at a desk 
all day, engrossed in work which requires intense 
concentration, induces sleeplessness. And sleep¬ 
lessness is a mighty serious matter. If you can¬ 
not sleep because of extreme exhaustion result¬ 
ing from too hard work during the day, a long 
walk in the evening, or some equivalent exercise, 
with a cold bath before retiring, usually will 
overcome this condition. Business men who take 
vacations find that when they exercise and ob¬ 
tain a goodly supply of fresh air they sleep far 
better than when devoted to their usual occupa¬ 
tions. 

He who uses drugs in order to produce sleep 
is committing a serious sin against his health. 
Usually, when the body is physically tired, sim¬ 
ple fatigue is sufficient inducement to sleep. 
Worry is a prolific cause of sleeplessness. Peo¬ 
ple sometimes worry because they cannot sleep. 
They try to cultivate sleep, and the harder they 
try the harder they find it to coax unconscious¬ 
ness. When this condition arises no cure is pos¬ 
sible except by a correction of the mental atti¬ 
tude, abandonment of worry, and an assumption 


SLEEP—REST—INSOMNIA 


61 


of indifference as to whether one sleeps or not. 

Chronic insomnia is one of the most nerve-de¬ 
stroying afflictions that can beset one who de¬ 
pends upon renewed force and added vigor each 
morning in order to enjoy life and gain a liveli¬ 
hood during the day. The condition is dispirit¬ 
ing and exasperating, and the more convinced 
one becomes that he cannot sleep, the more tan¬ 
talizing it becomes. 

Insomnia usually is the result of either acute 
alcoholism, congestion of the brain, mental or 
physical strain, or over-eating. There is but one 
cure. Remove the cause, and live a hygienic life. 

One should sleep under no more covers than 
are just necessary to keep the body warm. When 
retiring to sleep, put on enough covers to main¬ 
tain warmth and have extra ones within easy 
reach. One is much more likely to be roused in 
the night by chilliness due to insufficient cover¬ 
ing than by the oppression of too much bedding. 
Thus, not only is sleeping cold less harmful than 
sleeping too warm, but the former condition is vpore 
easily corrected than the latter. 

Can you appreciate the benefits to be derived 
from out-of-door sleeping? However much ven¬ 
tilation you have in the bedroom, it is, after all, 
an enclosed room, and not to be compared with 
that room which has for its roof the blue sky of 


62 


PHYSICAL PERFECTION 


heaven, for its sides the four corners of the world, 
and for its floor the cool and magnetic earth. It 
is well ventilated, this room of Nature’s, and to 
sleep in it will pay you far more than you 
imagine. Then, too, sleeping out-of-doors will in¬ 
ure your body to cold air. Air baths are good. 
It ought to be easy for everyone to sleep out-of- 
doors in the summertime at least. A hammock 
stretched between two trees, or a blanket on the 
lawn, is all the bed you need. 






IX 


Bathing 

W ATER, by virtue of its cleansing 
properties, will in itself cure many 
diseases. Indeed, this is one of the 
most important curative agents 
known. Bathing is a duty and should be a pleas¬ 
ure. It stands on a par with pure air and exercise 
as a means for the preservation of health or the 
recovery of health lost. The right kind of bath¬ 
ing, pure air, and daily exercise will ward off 
most of the ills to which human beings are sub¬ 
ject. 

The skin contains over three million perspira¬ 
tion tubules and many hundred thousand oil 
glands. It is the duty of these pores to carry off 
the impurities of the body, and in this respect the 
skin has a function similar to that of the kidneys. 
If the pores of the skin fully acted their part, kid¬ 
ney diseases would be far more infrequent. 
Clogged pores are the most prolific source of 
blood and skin diseases. If the skin were painted 
over with varnish or tar, thus hermetically seal¬ 
ing the pores, death would ensue in short order; 
cleanliness, therefore, is an everyday duty. In 
addition to being a glandular organ the skin is a 


64 


PHYSICAL PERFECTION 


nervous organ, being filled with little elevations 
containing nerve endings, which are organs of 
sensation. As such it exerts a great influence on 
the general health. Being a nervous organ, the 
skin is susceptible to shocks which depress or 
stimulate the entire system. This is one explana¬ 
tion of the tonic value of cold-water baths, and 
also of the depressing effect of a hot-water bath. 

Free perspiration is absolutely necessary to 
health. Perspiration means the excretion of the 
liquid commonly called sweat, which contains va¬ 
rious substances, including sodium chloride, vari¬ 
ous fatty acids, neutral fats and cholesterin from 
the tissue. If the pores are clogged and one does 
not perspire freely, a warm bath should be taken 
once a week, or a Turkish bath somewhat less 
frequently. Persons with weak hearts should 
take hot baths with extreme caution. The effect 
of the hot water is to cause the blood to desert 
the surface of the body, producing a congestion 
of the capillary system, which constitutes a 
strain on the heart. Its effect is modified, of 
course, in those who are accustomed to taking 
hot baths several times a week, since use forti¬ 
fies the system against ill effect. Warm water, 
or better still, tepid water, should be used. It 
must be borne in mind that baths, aside from 
cleansing the body, act as a curative agent, but in 


BATHING 


65 


order to get the tonic effect, the water should be 
cold enough to shock the system. 

Nothing is of greater benefit than a cold-water 
bath taken regularly in the morning, directly af¬ 
ter rising. Before taking a cold bath, however, 
the body must first be warmed by exercise, and 
preferably to a state of perspiration. -However, 
if one has not been accustomed to cold-water 
baths, it is necessary to start gradually, lest the 
shock be too severe. A cold sponge bath is one 
of the most refreshing sorts. Bathe first one arm, 
then the other; one leg, then the other; then the 
chest, and back, and sides. Do it rapidly. Af¬ 
terward use a heavy bath towel, and rub the 
body until it glows. This kind of bath takes but 
a few minutes, and is a tonic that will do more 
real good than any medicine one can take inter¬ 
nally. It must not be forgotten that the massage 
incident to rubbing after the bath is invaluable 
as a promoter of health, bringing the blood to the 
surface of the body and starting a good circula¬ 
tion. When you rub yourself until the body 
glows you can immediately feel the beneficial re¬ 
action from the cold bath. You can use a wet 
towel in place of a sponge, if there is no sponge 
handy. After you have taken these baths for some 
time you will find that you can take a bath as 
cold as you like without any sense of discomfort. 



66 


PHYSICAL PERFECTION 


Indeed, the exhilarating sensation experienced 
after each bath will more than compensate for the 
few minutes consumed morning and evening. 

A very satisfactory method of taking a bath is 
to attach a hose with a regular lawn nozzle to 
the faucet. By means of this device one can di¬ 
rect the water in a fine spray over the body, or 
can turn it in the form of a stream against any 
portion of the body, thus driving the blood from 
one part of the body to another. One can also 
regulate the force of the stream. The regulation 
bath hose, though not so good as the one de¬ 
scribed, makes a fairly good substitute if the 
lawn nozzle cannot be had. 

Those who are fortunate enough to possess a 
shower bath in their homes certainly have a lux¬ 
ury which should be appreciated. Hot and cold 
water is then at their command and they can turn 
the water on at a warm temperature and gradually 
decrease it until it becomes very cold. It should be 
remembered, in taking cold baths, that it is as easy 
to overdo them as to obtain beneficial results. 
When one is inured to the cold water, it is only 
necessary to turn on the water and stand under it 
for not more than a minute. The only result de¬ 
sired is the shock to the system. The colder the 
water at the start and the quicker one gets out of 
it, the more healthful the reaction. 


X 


Clothing 

I T IS conceded by well-nigh all that the hu¬ 
man race originated in the torrid zone. If 
so, clothing was not essential for the pro¬ 
tection of the body, and must have had its 
origin in the desire for adornment. As the brain 
of primitive man expanded and grew more com¬ 
plex, his ideas of personal decoration advanced 
from paint and tattoo marks to more elaborate 
clothing. Then, too, as the race spread out and 
crowded into all corners of the earth, clothing 
was utilized as a means of protection against the 
elements. From the primitive covering of skins 
of wild animals or of vegetation, to the elaborate 
dress of modern times, clothing has kept pace 
with the development of man and has always sup¬ 
plied a sure index to the complexity of his mode 
of life. 

As the ages went on and clothing became of 
more importance as a matter of fashion and beauty 
than for protection, a long line of evils was ushered 
in to afflict those who sinned in this respect against 
the laws of health and common sense. The modern 
man and woman are not exempt from these evils 


68 


PHYSICAL PERFECTION 


and they will continue to suffer as long as they defy 
Nature and disregard her mandates. 

The fundamental idea of clothing should be that 
of protection. The body must be kept from ex¬ 
tremes of both heat and cold. The normal tempera¬ 
ture of the body is about 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit, 
and it is of great importance to the vital functions 
that this temperature should be maintained at all 
times. The kind, amount, and form of clothing are, 
therefore, matters for deliberate consideration. 

To protect the body from the extremes of heat 
and cold, non-conducting materials are the most 
serviceable. These are woolens, furs, silks, cot¬ 
tons, and linens, in the order named. The woolens 
retain and prevent the radiation of heat better than 
other materials, and, at the other extreme, linen 
serves best for the purpose of excluding heat. The 
darker-colored materials absorb the most heat from 
the sun and white clothing reflects it best. For 
this reason, dark clothing should be used in winter 
and light-colored in summer. 

Light-weight clothing that does not exclude the 
air is at all times preferable. Underclothing should 
be of such texture as to allow the free circulation 
of air between the clothing and the skin. Open- 
mesh, gauze, or knit underwear, made of cotton, 
will do this, and is a better conserver of heat than 
tight-fitting, woven woolens. Clothing that does 


CLOTHING 


69 


not permit the free circualtion of air is absolutely 
deleterious to health, preventing, as it does, the 
evaporation of the various poisons and waste ma¬ 
terials exuded by the pores of the skin. For this 
reason, rubber goods, such as hats, shoes, and coats, 
are altogether bad. They are woven so closely that 
they exclude all air and thus clog the pores, forc¬ 
ing the body to get rid of its waste material by 
other channels, if it can. 

Not only will fresh air and sunshine bring health, 
but they make for beauty as well. Sunlight and air 
will make the skin clear and rosy, and if they have 
free access to the hair and scalp, will prevent and 
cure baldness, dandruff, and falling hair. Derby 
hats should, therefore, be avoided. In the cool 
months wear soft felt hats, and in summer, straws. 

The evil of keeping the air away from the body, 
great as it is, is perhaps surpassed by the folly of 
wearing clothing that in any way restricts or hamp¬ 
ers the muscles and organs of the body. Under this 
heading comes the wearing of tight shoes. Women 
and girls are the greatest offenders in this respect, 
but the callow youth who is just awaking to the 
charms of the fair sex runs them a close second. 
Tight shoes impede the circulation, cause corns, 
bunions, ingrowing toenails, broken-down arches, 
and weak ankles, and put a strain upon the nerves 


70 


PHYSICAL PERFECTION 


and temper. High heels throw the spine out of the 
proper equilibrium and injure the eyesight. 

On the other hand, comfortable shoes make one 
feel better, walk better, and look better. They in¬ 
duce a desire for exercise and afford the oppor¬ 
tunity for retaining sturdiness and beauty. Shoes 
should be changed every day and a separate pair 
should be reserved for rainy weather. This is 
more economical, as the shoes will wear longer and 
look better. Rubber heels are good, as they take 
the jar off the spine. 

If we condemn tight shoes, what must we say 
of the tight corset? The one results, in the main, 
in external ills and discomfort to the wearer, but the 
other strikes at the vital organs, and endangers the 
functions of the whole body. “If corsets are made 
properly and are not worn too tightly,” says one 
who condones them, “little harm is done.” But 
how is one to know what is a properly-made corset 
and what measure of pressure is harmless ? 

The corset provides a support for the body and 
so renders the muscles of the torso useless. 
These muscles, like those of the legs and arms, 
were intended to be used. The corset curves the 
spine, hollows the chest, and causes the abdomen to 
protrude. This last observation will be gainsaid by 
some women who say that they wear a corset to 
keep their abdomens in. Granted. But if they 


CLOTHING 


71 


had never worn a stiff, steel-lined arrangement 
about their bodies, they would not now have the 
ugly abdomen that forces itself out the minute the 
corsets are removed. 

The corset restricts the circulation of blood, and 
large legs and feet are among its results. It is 
also a cause of dyspepsia, because it interferes with 
the action of the ribs, diaphragm, and stomach. The 
stomach was not meant to be cramped. The corset 
weakens the vital and sexual organs, and so affects 
the welfare of the race. There are many mothers 
who absolutely disregard the dwarfing, deforming, 
and degenerating effect of corset-wearing during 
gestation. 

Beauty is the great aim of most women, and 
because they consider a small waist beautiful, they 
disregard the danger of constipation, nervous dis¬ 
eases, and misplaced vitals that are induced by the 
corset. Even when so afflicted, they will not admit 
that the corset is responsible. All the effects that 
have been enumerated, though not alarming at the 
start, wear on until some special strain is put upon 
the system and then the rope breaks at the weakest 
point. Childbearing, and practically all other 
natural functions, are attended by unnecessary dan¬ 
ger because of the many ills brought about by cor¬ 
set wearing. 

It would not be easy to give up a corset after 



72 


PHYSICAL PERFECTION 


wearing it for years. The muscles of the sides 
and back would be too weak to support the body 
in an erect position. But the body can be gradu¬ 
ally strengthened. Wear a corset if you must, but 
wear it loose. Then remove one steel or bone at a 
time until nothing but the cloth remains. This, of 
course, will not be a corset proper, and you will 
find that by this time the body is able to do without 
the unnatural support. 

It is to be hoped, for the sake of future genera¬ 
tions, that the healthy^ athletic girl of the century 
will adopt a sensible mode of dress that will do 
away with the corset and its attendant ills. 

The stricture against tightness applies to all art¬ 
icles of clothing as well as to corsets and shoes. 
Waist bands and neck bands should not be tight. 
It is a good plan not to have any strings or bands 
about the waist. The weight of the clothing should 
be, so far as possible, on the shoulders. There 
should be no pressure on any part of the body. 
There should be no stiffness in any garment, to 
interfere with the action of any muscles. 

Summarized, the rules for common-sense cloth¬ 
ing are as follows: 

Clothing should be selected as a means for pro¬ 
tecting the body from the extremes of heat or cold, 
in order to keep it at its normal temperature, 98.6 
Fahrenheit. 


CLOTHING 


73 


Only clothing that permits the free circulation of 
air between it and the skin should be worn. 

All clothing that is stiff or tight, or that restricts 
or cramps the muscles and organs of the body, 
should be avoided. 

There should be no pressure on any part of the 
body. 

The weight of the clothing should be on the 
shoulders and hips. 

These rules are simple and few in number. But, 
if they are followed, they will bring health and 
strength and comeliness, if not beauty—results 
which surely are to be desired. 



XI 


Foods 

U PON food and air—life’s main essen¬ 
tials—depends man’s physical, mental, 
and moral well being. Man is precise¬ 
ly what his food makes him. All the 
millions of cells in his body have been built from 
the food he has eaten, and these cells are the foun¬ 
dation of hiis health and strength and vitality. From 
his food he derives his physical energy and his 
power of brain. There is no imaginable reason 
why anyone should be wanting in surplus power, or 
should not feel at all times full of vigor and energy, 
if he will but look to his food. The superb powers 
of health are within the reach of all, and in more 
than a few cases the question of health is merely a 
question of food. Although the human race has 
been in existence for thousands of years, and has 
made marvelous development while conquering the 
forces of nature, the race has still to learn how to 
eat. 

The food we eat furnishes the chemical elements 
which are necessary for the metabolism of the body, 
and improper food slowly but surely destroys life. 
Do you ever stop to think of your unfortunate stom¬ 
ach—of what it does for you, and of how you abuse 


* 


FOODS 


75 


it? You don’t give it time to digest what you have 
put into it before you put another meal on top of 
the first. You eat fast and bolt your food, and, 
as a consequence, you become dyspeptic, you have 
headaches; your liver becomes sluggish, your skin 
yellow, and your lungs diseased; the heart palpi¬ 
tates, the nerves become overtaxed, and the mind 
incapable of normal activity. Then you resort to 
stomach tonics which are absolutely worthless, be¬ 
cause in many cases they are merely chemical irri¬ 
tants, and a meal taken into the stomach after using 
them ferments and decomposes instead of digesting. 
When this occurs, the mass of decaying foodstuff 
moves slowly down the intestinal canal, deranging 
in its course every function of the system. 

Old age is brought nearer or retarded, according 
to the different foods one ingests. In old age the 
joints become stiff and partial ossification of the 
cartilage and cartilagenous membranes of the body 
set in. This is due to calcareous (limy) matter, 
which is carried into every part of the body by the 
circulation of the blood. This matter settles in the 
joints and arteries and permeates the cartilage of 
the body until the normally flexible veins and liga¬ 
ments become hard and rigid. With the coming of 
old age appear neuralgia, and other nervous dis¬ 
orders—likewise anemia and liver troubles (and the 
liver is one of the organs that have most to do 


76 


PHYSICAL PERFECTION 


with health)—dyspepsia, loss or increase of flesh, 
and many other disorders. Thus the preservation 
of youth and health becomes in large measure a 
question of diet—the partaking of foods that will 
neutralize and dissolve the calcareous matter in the 
system as well as build up the tissue. 

The first process of digestion is salivation, which 
is induced by the act of mastication. You must 
chew your food. Never think that you can chew 
it too much—it will always be the other way. You 
must eat slowly, must not eat when exhausted, nor 
immediately after or just before exercise or bath¬ 
ing. Mastication greatly lightens the work of the 
stomach. Thorough mastication gives perfect as¬ 
similation. You have been using your stomach 
ever since you were born; it is high time that you 
give it some consideration. The best way to do 
this is to learn to masticate the food you eat. You 
may rest assured that the stomach will repay you a 
hundred-fold in increased health and strength. Do 
not stuff it with foods that irritate; give it a rest 
from high-seasoned foods and liquors. And above 
all never put a second meal into it before the first is 
digested. 

Young persons require more food in proportion 
than older ones, because the body, which does not 
reach maturity until about the age of twenty-four, 
makes greater demands while growing than at a 


FOODS 


77 


later period. There is a gradual reduction in the 
quantity of food required, especially of meat, there¬ 
after throughout life. Climate, too, has much to do 
with food requirements. Much less food is neces¬ 
sary and less is desirable in summer than in winter 
weather. There is no better diet for the hot months 
than all kinds of vegetables and vegetable salads, 
with an olive oil dressing. In the winter months 
an increase of oils, fats, starchy food and other 
carbohydrates is required. 

It is not so much quantitative as qualitative dis¬ 
crimination that constitutes the secret of dieting. 
The eating of too much proteid food, in the form of 
such highly concentrated aliments as butter, cheese, 
and eggs, will not restore lost vitality, but the 
strain placed on the system by this highly proteid 
diet will lessen vital force. There are many persons 
who take in vast quantities of this highly condensed 
nourishment, besides stuffing themselves three times 
a day with other bulkier food, and this habit of eat¬ 
ing is to the ruination of many an iron constitution. 

Countless persons could trace their ill-health to 
the food they eat, and all should bear in mind that 
the right kind of wholesome, nutritive food is with¬ 
out question essential to the recovery and mainten¬ 
ance of health. Perfect food builds perfect tissue 
and renews that which is broken down by exercise 
and labor. Many foods contain such medicinal prin- 



78 


PHYSICAL PERFECTION 


ciples that they can be used with more telling effect 
as drugs than many a concoction that may be ob¬ 
tained at a pharmacy. For instance, spinach and 
asparagus are nerve tonics. You can put iron into 
your system by simply eating onions, which contain 
a large percentage of the mineral. The onion is an 
humble vegetable, but armies and navies cannot get 
along without it. Iron is found also in beets, tur¬ 
nips, tomatoes, and spinach. Tomatoes and parsley 
are liver cleansers. Figs are an excellent laxative. 
Lettuce and onions are soporifics, and consequently 
good for insomnia. 

Such foods tend to purify the blood, and if you 
had pure blood, do you think you could contract 
disease of any kind ? Do you think you could catch 
a cold? Don’t you know that impure blood is the 
cause of nearly all disease? When disease of any 
kind attacks one the malady is always constitutional, 
that is, it is in the blood. If there are any impuri¬ 
ties in the blood, they must, at some time, appear in 
some part of the body. The introduction of rational 
methods of eating will surely and quickly remove 
the noxious elements from the blood. When this 
poisonous matter is removed there is nothing for 
the disease to live on. 

It is easy to regulate the condition of the blood 
by fasting, dieting, bathing, and exercising. A 
short fast is always beneficial, purifying the blood 


FOODS 


79 


in the shortest possible time. Try it occasionally 
when the blood is filled with impurities due to over¬ 
eating. Start fasting slowly; first miss one meal, 
then two, then three; then fast for a day, then two 
days. Drink plenty of distilled water during the 
fast. Upon bringing a two or three-day fast to a 
close, be sure not to overeat. Fruit is the best thing 
to start on. The renewed vitality that comes to the 
wearied organs of the body will more than repay 
one for an occasional fast. 

The uric acid intoxication, due to excessive meat- 
eating, is also one of the causes of failure in health. 
Meat once a day is sufficient for nearly all persons, 
as there is incontrovertible evidence that a nearly 
non-flesh, low-proteid dietary is conducive to endur¬ 
ance and health. Meat may be entirely dispensed 
with if one will eat instead, at least once a day, 
beans, peas, or lentils, entire-wheat bread or nuts, 
as these substitutes contain all the strength-giving 
elements in meat, without the uric acid and other 
harmful constituents of flesh food. 

It is of the utmost importance for the person in¬ 
tent upon improvement of physical condition to 
make a careful study of nutrition, not only as to the 
total amount of food required, but with regard to 
its constituents. Food, to build up the body, must 
contain carbohydrates, proteids, fats, mineral mat¬ 
ters, and water. Proteids, carbohydrates, and fats 


80 


PHYSICAL PERFECTION 


furnish heat and energy for work. Proteids com¬ 
prise the gluten of flour, the albumen of the white 
of egg, fibrin of blood, casein of cheese, syntonin of 
muscles, and other such building-material. Amongst 
the more important carbohydrates are sugar, starch, 
dextrin, and gum, found largely in vegetables such 
as potatoes, corn, beets, carrots, parsnips, beans, 
and peas, and in fruits such as apples, prunes, dates, 
currants, raisins, cherries, bananas, and peaches. 

Many persons remove all fat from their food, 
which is a serious mistake. Fats serve to lubricate 
the alimentary tract and generate heat. The most 
valuable kind of fat is that obtained from butter, 
cream, olive oil, nuts, and cocoa. These fats are 
extremely nutritious, in that they serve to increase 
the resistance to cold, build up the system, and give 
power to resist and overcome many diseases. Such 
fats also go a long way toward increasing strength 
and vitality and preventing development of tuber¬ 
culosis, scrofula, leanness, and suchlike affections. 
The system needs fats, and fats, combined with a 
low percentage of proteid foods, are of particular 
value to the body. 

Olive oil is one of the best foods we have, in 
that it contains nearly all substances necessary to 
sustain life. It will build up wasted tissue and in¬ 
crease flesh when everything else fails. To those 
who are afflicted with wasting diseases or are con- 


FOODS 


81 


stitutionally thin, the use of olive oil daily is strongly 
recommended. In the case of consumption, for 
instance, olive oil is especially indicated, because it 
contains nearly 100 per cent of nutriment and is 
easily assimilated. Olive oil also is good for weak 
nerves and stomach troubles. Two tablespoonfuls 
contain more nourishment than a pound of meat, 
and it is, in fact, one of the highest foods as regards 
nutritive value. In cases of neuralgia, rheumatism, 
nervous disorders, liver trouble, and many other dis¬ 
eases, as well as in anemia and cases of bad com¬ 
plexion, olive oil is helpful, and it is a valuable aid 
to the dyspeptic. 

Fruits are of particular value from a dietetic point 
of view. The fruit diet is one of the best known 
remedies for chronic bowel affections and also for 
other acute and chronic disorders. Fruits, taken 
alone, make one of the best possible meals for the 
last one of the day. There are grape cures, apple 
cures, berry cures, and various other kinds of fruit 
cures which have been practised in the old countries 
for years and which are now being introduced into 
this country. They are all of more or less value. 
The hygienic and rational method of living that en¬ 
ters into such cures constitutes their principal vir¬ 
tue. 

People inclined to rheumatism are greatly bene¬ 
fited by the use of fruits. They should, of course, 


82 


PHYSICAL PERFECTION 


abstain from all foods containing uric acid, such as 
all meat preparations, as well as tea, coffee, liquor, 
and tobacco. In fever, fruit juices are an essential 
part of the diet. In the case of obesity, an ex¬ 
clusive diet of fruit for a week or so will cause a 
considerable reduction in flesh without any notice¬ 
able discomfort. Chronic biliousness is also another 
disease from which afflicted persons could obtain 
relief by the use of a fruit diet. Prunes, pears, rais¬ 
ins, and bananas are good for persons suffering from 
acid dyspepsia. Fruits have the advantage over 
most foods that they go into the body ready for 
immediate assimilation. Fruits aid the digestion of 
other food by stimulating the formation of gastric 
juice and particularly the production of pepsin. 
Pineapple juice, for instance, is one of the best 
known aids to digestion. If persons inclined to in¬ 
digestion would take a little pineapple juice after 
their meals they would find much more relief than 
in many of the medicines prepared with that specific 
object in view. Lemon juice is invaluable, in that 
if added to germ-infected water it will render it 
sterile in thirty minutes. 

There is a large variety of “don’ts” that may be 
offered when it comes to the question of what to 
eat. 

Don’t tolerate pork, for instance. If you must 


FOODS 


83 


have meat, eat mutton, lamb, or beef once a day. 

Don’t eat hot bread, pies, cakes, puddings, pastry, 
any kind of highly seasoned foods, or anything 
fried. 

Don’t eat doughnuts, Welsh rarebits, crabs, lob¬ 
sters, sardines, canned salmon. 

Don’t eat anything canned. Sherbets, punches, 
candies, and candied fruit are not desirable. 

Don’t use condiments. 

Don’t drink while eating. 

Don’t eat between meals; regular habits of eating 
aid digestion. 

If you are inclined to obesity, you need to elimi¬ 
nate such foods as breakfast cereals; wheat, corn, 
and graham bread; fish, oils, soups, gravies; starchy 
and sugary vegetables, such as beets, oyster plant, 
beans, turnips, potatoes, and carrots; pies, candies, 
macaroni, spaghetti, vermicelli, noodles, milk, malt 
beverages, wines and liquors, tea and coffee. 

It is just as bad to eat too little as too much. 
Excess of food is highly injurious, but too little 
food is dangerous. It is better to eat moderately 
three times a day than to partake of two heavy 
meals. 

Eat for health only. Don’t let eating become a 
passion. It is advisable to take a rest of an hour 
or at least half an hour after each meal, in order to 
give the digestive organs a chance to do their work. 


XII 


Liquids and Stimulants 

A S articles of food, tea and coffee are val¬ 
ueless, for only an infusion of the sub¬ 
stances is made, and their claim to 
favor rests upon the stimulating ef¬ 
fects they produce. The excessive use of either tea 
or coffee is followed by disastrous results. Coffee 
contains a volatile, slightly bitter, stimulating oil, 
called caffein, similar in its nature to thein, found 
in tea. Any one can drink tea or coffee until his 
system has accumulated enough caffein or thein to 
poison him. The symptoms of caffein or thein pois¬ 
oning are fever, rapid pulse, wandering mind, and 
broken rest. In some instances sleep is impossible. 
Then, too, the excessive use of these beverages will 
result in a state of continuous intoxication. When 
the drinking of tea and coffee becomes habitual the 
effect on health is far more deleterious than the 
drinker appreciates. 

The tannin contained in tea has the effect of 
rendering the membraneous lining of the stomach 
hard and firm. This tannin contains the same chemi¬ 
cal constituents as oak bark, which is used for tan¬ 
ning leather. The cheaper the grade of tea, the 
greater the percentage of tannin. It is particularly 


LIQUIDS AND STIMULANTS 


85 


when tea is allowed to brew indefinitely that this 
chemical is set free. This fact alone should prove 
that the drinking of tea is by no means conducive 
to health. 

Because coffee stimulates the brain, makes the 
memory acute, dissipates fatigue, raises the spirits 
when depressed, animates the circulatory system, 
and altogether gives one a feeling of vigor, it by 
no means follows that it is not harmful. After 
stimulation depression must follow. That is natural 
law. And just so surely as coffee causes the heart 
to beat faster, the circulation to become more rapid 
and the digestive tract to become excited in its ef¬ 
forts to eliminate the poison from the system, just 
so surely will there be a reaction following the use 
of the liquid, and it will require a further and in¬ 
creasing supply to keep the system stimulated to 
the same extent. The claims that are made for 
coffee might with equal justice be made for whiskey 
and other alcoholic beverages. The difference is 
merely one of degree. 

Is it natural for men to use stimulant liquids? 
Is the person who “indulges” to be compared in 
health with the man whose system is never in a state 
of excitement through drinking cheering beverages ? 
No one, whether he indulges in moderation in the 
drinking of tea, coffee, and other stimulants or not, 
will deny that their excessive use is decidedly injuri- 



86 


PHYSICAL PERFECTION 


ous. Persons employed in packing tea are subject 
to paralysis, and many heavy tea drinkers are sub¬ 
ject to headaches resulting from indulgence in the 
beverage. This is directly traceable to the volatile 
oil, thein. 

You may have read the series of arguments 
whereby a clever writer proved conclusively that 
Napoleon never existed; just so the written and 
spoken words of many physicians may be cited to 
prove that tea and coffee are not injurious, but on 
the contrary beneficial. Nevertheless, even though 
tea, coffee, alcohol, and similar cordials used in 
moderation are but a slow poison, are they not pois¬ 
ons after all? You can use strychnine or any other 
deadly poison in minute quantities day by day until 
you so inure the system to it that you can take 
without harm a dose that would kill five or six ordi¬ 
nary men. You simply get used to it. If tea and 
coffee are harmful to children, why should they not 
be harmful to adults as well? We all know that 
the average person possesses enough vitality to 
throw off the poisons contained in tea, coffee, and 
alcohol consumed in moderation, but the effort of 
throwing off these poisons day after day and year 
after year is a tax on the vital forces of the body. 
Health and vigor would be improved and a longer 
lease of life assured, if these vital forces were 


LIQUIDS AND STIMULANTS 


87 


conserved, and the organs of the body spared this 
needless overwork. 

What is fatigue? Whence does it arise? Is it 
not a fact that fatigue is Nature’s warning that 
your body is in need of rest in order to recuperate 
from mental and physical labor? And is there any 
rational treatment, save rest, for the overcoming of 
fatigue ? 

On the other hand, if you drink tea, coffee, and 
other stimulants in order to overcome this feeling 
of fatigue, are you not transgressing Nature’s laws? 
True, there are on record persons who have lived to 
be centenarians, though addicted to the use of tea 
and coffee all their lives. There are on record, also, 
persons who have lived to 100 years or more, and 
who have drunk liquor, as well as tea and coffee and 
other narcotics. Yet who will assert that exceptions 
disprove the rule ? 

From the laboratory side of medicine we get a 
positive ruling on this question. The use of to¬ 
bacco, whiskey, tea, or coffee hurts. However, 
there is also the feature of individual requirements, 
which must be considered. What is an excess for 
one person would be only a comfort to another. If 
a person has been addicted all his life to the use of 
stimulants, the practise of moderation may be pref¬ 
erable to an absolute cutting off of the supply. Yet 
there is the rub. Can the so-called “moderate 


PHYSICAL PERFECTION 


drinker/’ in the nature of the case, maintain modera¬ 
tion? By insensible degrees self-control relaxes, 
and every drink one takes diminishes the power of 
resistance. That very psychological fact is the 
strongest weapon in the arsenal of the advocates of 
total abstinence. 

Really to appreciate the harmful results of drink¬ 
ing intoxicants and the gain in force, physical, ner¬ 
vous, and mental, consequent on temperance or ab¬ 
stinence, one has only to start the day with some 
kind of stimulant, and continue to indulge hour 
after hour. The next day let him use no stimulant 
at all, and he will be decidedly depressed, his mind 
will not be so keen, nor his head so clear. The 
nervous system that is not accustomed to the use of 
excitants will never know the restlessness and 
worry and feeling of exhaustion which eternally be¬ 
set the man who tries by the daily use of stimu¬ 
lants to keep his nerve-cells from becoming natur¬ 
ally exhausted. 

Those who are used to tea and coffee and other 
stimulants, and as a consequence suffer from di¬ 
gestive disturbances, congested liver, nervousness, 
and numerous other ills, will do well to change to 
cocoa, which is not only a pleasing drink, but is a 
nutritive one as well. The hot water used in mak¬ 
ing cocoa is stimulating and gives the user a grate- 


LIQUIDS AND STIMULANTS 


89 


ful sense of comfort. It is an aid to digestion and 
causes no debility. 

Since water forms a large proportion of all our 
tissues and is being lost constantly in the excre¬ 
tions, it follows that a considerable quantity (esti¬ 
mated at from three to five pints) must be taken 
daily in some form or other. A glass of cold water 
on rising rinses out the stomach and keens the appe¬ 
tite for breakfast. Generous draughts of cold (not 
iced) water between meals flush the intestinal tract 
and relieve a tendency to constipation. Hot water, 
taken just before going to bed, relieves headache 
caused by indigestion, and is excellent in cases of 
insomnia. Many persons have to exercise extreme 
care in their use of milk, which may curdle in a 
mass in the stomach, or may cause constipation. 
The former may generally be obviated by taking 
the liquid slowly, and a sip at a time; the latter by 
modifying the milk by the addition of water to suit 
the individual or by taking it in the fermented form 
of kumyss. 

It would be well for us to look to our drinking 
if we would live a natural and normal life. To en¬ 
joy superb health and all that health means, the 
drinking of tea or coffee and alcohol should be re¬ 
ligiously avoided. If, however, you will persist in 
drinking tea or coffee, wih.y not do it very moder¬ 
ately? Make the coffee or tea as hot as you can, 



90 


PHYSICAL PERFECTION 


then add milk to an equal proportion of the liquid. 
Thus you will minimize the bad effects. Never, 
under any circumstances, allow your children to be¬ 
come tea or coffee “fiends” while they are young and 
growing. Even if we were to grant that it does not 
hurt you, it will surely hurt them, and it is very 
much better for their present health and future 
prospects that they abstain entirely from stimulants 
until they at least attain maturity. 

Fortunate, indeed, is the person who has never 
acquired the habit of indulging in stimulants of any 
kind. A keen brain, an alert mentality, a vigorous 
body, freedom from depression, and the ability to 
fall into a soothing sleep when weary, are part of 
his reward. 



XIII 


Obesity 

O BESITY, or corpulence, is a condition of 
excessive development of the fatty tis¬ 
sue, or, as Lord Byron termed it, an 
“oily dropsy/’ It is really a patho¬ 
logical, or abnormal state—as much a perverted con¬ 
dition of the body as any derangement or disease of 
the vital organs, and often leading to serious conse¬ 
quences—a graphic illustration of the violation of 
the laws of nutrition. 

In some ‘individuals this deposit of fat amounts to 
a deformity, disturbing comfort, reducing activity 
and usefulness, and thereby inviting an increase in 
superfluous adipose tissue. The detraction from 
personal appearance, the ungainliness—often 
amounting to unsightliness—and the unfavorable 
comment which obesity provokes are overshadowed 
by the real menace and danger to the health and 
life of the possessor of superabundant fat. 

By way of proving that this is no idle statement, it 
is only necessary to refer to the fact—well known 
to medical men, and perhaps to many of the laity— 
that corpulent persons offer little resistance to the 
inroads of acute disease; for example, pneumonia 
or typhoid fever. 


92 


PHYSICAL PERFECTION 


Insurance companies regard corpulent persons as 
undesirable risks. Why? The reason is obvious. 
This lessened physiological resistance renders them 
susceptible also to such diseases as gout, diabetes, ar¬ 
teriosclerosis (or hardening of the walls of the ar¬ 
teries) and increases the danger of apoplexy. To be 
sure, it would be erroneous to say that every corpu¬ 
lent person is short-lived, as there are exceptions; 
yet who can say which one shall be the exception? 

This tendency to lay on fatty tissue is often 
hereditary, but is more frequently seen in individu¬ 
als after they have passsed middle life, though occa¬ 
sionally also in young persons. We sometimes find 
corpulency a family characteristic. As a rule obesity 
makes its appearance after the age of 35. But the 
prime factors in the disposition to excessive fat 
formation are improper diet, overeating, and lack 
of sufficient exercise. 

The law of supply and demand is fundamental to 
economics. A proper balance of the two factors re¬ 
sults in harmonious action. Let this be violated and 
a penalty follows. Now, nutrition is a prime essen¬ 
tial to maintenance of life. Applying the law of 
supply and demand to the bodily economy, we may 
see that an indifferent attitude toward the system’s 
exact requirements in the way of food will produce 
abnormal nutrition. Thus an increased supply of 


OBESITY 


93 


food—overeating—will eventually bring its train of 
disturbances. 

The chief varieties of foods—fats, carbohydrates 
(sugar and starches) and albuminoids—are each 
capable of producing fat in varying degrees. While 
it is true that the carbohydrates form fat, and 
heretofore have been thought to be its chief source, 
it is now generally believed that the albuminoids 
play the more important role in the development of 
adipose tissue. 

Eating very little fat does not prevent corpulence. 
As a matter of fact, the fatty foods, on account of 
being broken up and oxidized, serve chiefly to pre¬ 
vent the consumption of the fats already stored in 
the body and those obtained from other sources. 

Another source of bodily fat is alcohol. Particu¬ 
larly worthy of remark is beer, which contains 
carbohydrates and about 4 per cent of alcohol. Ac¬ 
cordingly it can readily be understood why the hab¬ 
itual beer drinker so frequently is obese. Other 
alcoholic beverages taken continuously and in large 
quantities, also will contribute their share by liber¬ 
ating other substances, which, being transformed 
into fat, are deposited in the liver and elsewhere 
in the body. The ingestion of large amounts of 
similar fluids also has a tendency to permit the ac¬ 
cumulation of fat, owing to interference with oxi¬ 
dation. 


94 


PHYSICAL PERFECTION 


After all has been said in regard to heredity, eat¬ 
ing, and drinking as causes in fat production, per¬ 
haps of chief importance in aggravating this ten¬ 
dency is the pursuit of a sedentary life and its ac¬ 
companying lack of exercise. Insufficient muscular 
contraction is conducive to an increase in fat and 
a failure to consume that already formed. This 
neglect to take exercise is a violation of a funda¬ 
mental principle, a disregard of the teachings of 
Nature, and is indeed a sin of omission. 

The fat vesicles, or globules, are gradually de¬ 
posited subcutaneously until the underlying tissue 
acquires a thickness in some cases remarkable. As 
the process progresses, the internal organs, par¬ 
ticularly the heart, liver, and kidneys, become in¬ 
filtrated with fat, impairing their functioning. The 
heart, laboring under its burden of fat, its muscle- 
walls weakened, is unable to keep up proper blood- 
pressure, and pumps the blood with difficulty 
through the lungs. Thus a deficient quantity of 
oxygen is absorbed, causing defective aeration of 
the blood, reducing and interfering with oxidation; 
various disorders dependent on tissue change occur, 
and still more fat is elaborated and retained. 

Very often the fat person has difficulty in breath¬ 
ing and at times the slightest exertion will cause 
him much distress. The heart cannot stand the 
strain imposed upon it, embarrassed as it is by the 


OBESITY 


95 


fatty infiltration and consequent lowered nutrition 
of its muscle-walls. It is a peculiar fact that the 
sexual powers in both men and women begin to 
subside when they grow fat. 

The very presence of fat favors a further accum¬ 
ulation by limiting the muscular activity of the 
subject, diminishing combustion and oxidation, and 
retaining heat by preventing its radiation. 

The appearance of a fat person is quite typical; 
the plump face, puffed cheeks, double chin, large 
abdomen, thick legs and arms, and sometimes tre¬ 
mendous circumference of body. Walking may be 
quite difficult and laborious. 

An early suggestion of approaching corpulency is 
rapid breathing when attempting any exertion. This 
later on becomes constant, owing to an encroach¬ 
ment of fat upon the heart and to an increase of fat 
in the liver and abdomen, which restricts the move¬ 
ments of the diaphragm and limits the expansion of 
the lungs. This, as has been previously explained, 
reduces the supply of oxygen. 

The heart continues to weaken, fatty degenera¬ 
tion may ensue, and the condition may ultimately 
cause sudden death. The pulse is not always easy 
to determine. It is usually rapid, or may be slow 
and quite irregular. 

The two principal indications for correction of 
this annoying condition are exercise and diet; there- 


96 


PHYSICAL PERFECTION 


fore two courses are suggested: First, give less 
food to be oxidized; second, increase the oxidation 
of the fat in the body. 

As the requirements of individuals differ, some 
variation in the diet is necessary. It is my belief 
that rapid reduction is undesirable, a gradual loss 
of weight giving results more likely to be per¬ 
manent. 

Starchy and farinaceous foods should be omitted; 
for sugar saccharin may be substituted; very little 
water should be allowed. A routine formula such 
as the following may be used : 

For Breakfast—About two ounces of bread, 
toasted, with a small amount of butter; a cup of tea 
with or without a little milk. 

For Lunch—One egg, tea or skimmed milk, with 
a wafer. 

For Dinner—Two small lamb chops; a small 
amount of green peas or spinach; a bit of cheese, 
and skimmed milk. No rice or potatoes should be 
taken. 


XIY 


Leanness 

L EANNESS, like its antithesis, obesity, is 
subject to hereditary and extraneous in¬ 
fluences. Some people tend to leanness, 
others to fatness. Leanness sometimes 
is due to a too-active temperament, or to nervous¬ 
ness, and if this is the case a cure quickly sug¬ 
gests itself: Reduce mental and physical activity, 
don’t worry, be cheerful, rest a great deal, sleep 
more, eat more fats and carbohydrates, and keep 
the muscular system active by means of exercise 
and baths. 

Malassimilation is probably the most prevalent 
cause of extreme leanness. If this be the difficulty, 
the stomach must be strengthened, not strained by 
eating indigestible foods. The stomach muscles 
should be exercised. (See Index to Exercises.) 

How often do we hear the thin individual lament 
the fact that he lacks sufficient tissue to hide his 
more prominent bones. The pendulum is now swing¬ 
ing in the other direction, and the lanky person 
arouses our sympathy for the apparently—and 
sometimes actually—too-poorly-nourished body. 
However, to be thin is better than to be fat. 

Is it possible to add to the bodily tissues? Can 


98 


PHYSICAL PERFECTION 


this leanness be overcome? If the thinness is the 
result of inherited nervous temperament, improper 
digestion and malassimilation of food, constipation, 
anemia, or tuberculosis, I can confidently say that 
it can be remedied. It is advisable that the indi¬ 
vidual sleep nine or ten hours. Undisturbed rest 
is essential. 

In the morning and evening oatmeal and cream 
are recommended as flesh producers. Milk should 
be a staple drink, also cocoa—not tea or coffee. 
Soup, beef or mutton are among the best of the 
meat products that can be obtained. Other flesh- 
producing foods are chicken, turkey, all kinds of 
game, nuts, cheese, corn products, potatoes, butter, 
olive oil, and all kinds of oil or fats. 

Another food that is not used as generally as it 
should be, but one which all people relish occa¬ 
sionally, is honey. Honey is especially rich in fat¬ 
forming materials. Not only is it rich in heat¬ 
making and flesh-producing qualities, but also as a 
laxative it can hardly be overvalued. As a matter 
of truth, there are many proprietary laxatives on 
the market which are composed largely of honey. 
The strained form is the best in which to eat 
honey, but as there are many unscrupulous dealers 
who put forth an entirely different mixture from 
the genuine article, labeling it “strained honey,” it 
is hardly advisable to purchase any of these unless 

/ 


LEANNESS 


99 


one can be entirely sure of its genuineness. It is 
preferable, therefore, that the honey be purchased 
in the comb and strained at home. Care should 
be taken that no part of the comb, or wax, be 
swallowed, because the wax is absolutely indi¬ 
gestible, and difficult of passage through the ali¬ 
mentary tract. Sometimes a wax ball will form in 
the stomach, although this is rather a rare occur¬ 
rence. 

The Index to Exercises on Page 20 gives a list of 
movements for the development of tissue. While 
performing these exercises, let it be understood 
that they must be practised slowly. In the case 
of fat persons, the exercises should be performed as 
swiftly as possible, in order to cause increased oxi¬ 
dation of the tissues. Now, a thin person does not 
want to oxidize his tissues any more than he can 
help, for fear of becoming thinner. No exercises, 
however, should be indulged in so slowly as not 
to induce perspiration. 



XV 


Stomach and Bowel 
Disorders 

W HEN digestion is imperfect, natural¬ 
ly the bowels must work imper¬ 
fectly. This is our reason for taking 
up under one heading the disorders 
of the stomach and bowels. As a matter of truth, 
however, one may suffer from an intestinal disor¬ 
der when his stomach is in practically perfect con¬ 
dition, or even vice versa. Diseases of the digestive 
tract affect different persons differently. As a 
matter of fact, there are hardly two dyspeptics who 
exhibit the same symptoms. Then, again, a suf¬ 
ferer from defective nutrition may experience dif¬ 
ferent troubles today from those that may affect 
him a few months later. There are really as many 
different forms of dyspepsia or indigestion as there 
are sufferers therefrom. However, the symptoms 
which are most common, though one or another of 
them may not appear at the same time, are as fol¬ 
lows: 

Coated tongue, feeling of nausea, vomiting, 
waterbrash, dizziness, sick headaches, specks before 
the eyes, sensation of fullness in the stomach, or, on 


STOMACH AND BOWEL DISORDERS 101 


the contrary, a gnawing pain in the region of the 
stomach, spitting of slime, inability to eat regu¬ 
larly, loss of appetite, or too much appetite, and bil¬ 
iousness. 

Indigestion is a far more serious trouble than is 
generally imagined. It is easier to appreciate this 
when we fully realize the fact that every organ and 
every part of the human mechanism is dependent 
upon the digestive apparatus for fuel, power, vitality. 
When one recognizes the true nature and seriousness 
of stomach disorders, appreciating their main symp¬ 
toms and resultant ailments, he must agree, if he will 
study the mortality statistics of any large city, that 
more than half the deaths in this nation of dys¬ 
peptics are due, directly or indirectly, to diseases 
of indigestion. I am well satisfied that even con¬ 
sumption, scrofula, cancer and other serious af¬ 
fections have their predisposing causes in inef¬ 
fective nutrition. Sufferers from any of these more 
serious afflictions are usually men and women of 
advanced age, and anyone can learn from the his¬ 
tories of their cases that in middle age or early life 
they were afflicted with digestive disorders. The 
fact that physicians generally do not recognize this, 
that they treat effects rather than causes, is one of 
the reasons why ailments like consumption and 
cancer are by so many considered incurable—which 
they are not. 


102 


PHYSICAL PERFECTION 


Another peculiar and deceptive thing about indi¬ 
gestion and dyspepsia is that in some cases the trou¬ 
ble affects other organs, and in still others appears 
to do so, whereas it really does not. In such cases, 
of course, if the diagnosis is wrong the treatment is 
wrong. Many sufferers from stomach trouble, for 
instance, are annoyed by a palpitation in the region 
of the stomach which they imagine as being of the 
heart. It follows that if the heart is treated or can 
be treated for a trouble which is seated elsewhere, 
the treatment is as far wrong as the diagnosis. The 
complexion, too, is usually bad in cases of stomach 
or bowel trouble, and it is foolish, to say the least, to 
attempt to apply outward applications or to regard 
the affection as one of the skin. One must go to the 
root of the trouble and try to remove it. 

It may be set down as a fact that whenever one 
suffers from any digestive disorder he must be 
afflicted with other troubles also. One of the com¬ 
monest resultant diseases is liver trouble. On ac¬ 
count of the close proximity of the stomach to the 
liver, any distension or abnormality of the former 
must unquestionably affect the other organ, usually 
causing enlargement. Spinal troubles, also, are fre¬ 
quently produced by stomach trouble, curvature of 
the spine resulting more frequently than is gen¬ 
erally known. 

Constipation, of course, is another trouble due 


STOMACH AND BOWEL DISORDERS. 103 


mainly to incomplete digestion. Where such is 
the case, there is no possible way of relieving the 
costive condition except by correcting the digestive 
disorder. 

The whole subject of diseases of digestion has 
made meat for many text books and in a volume of 
this size it would be impossible to treat the matter 
in detail. It would be even more difficult to do so 
in the same space in a so-called medical work. 
After all is said, the treatment does not call for 
volumes of explanation, there being but one disease, 
speaking broadly—ill health. 

Perfect health implies perfect digestion and the 
absence of any stomach or bowel complaint or re¬ 
sultant disorder. This is only getting back to the 
keynote of this whole book, which is: Restore nat¬ 
ural conditions and then every organ will be healthy 
and work naturally. All of them will function so 
harmoniously that disease or weakness cannot exist. 

As to a specific cure for stomach disorders, we 
must first take into consideration the food that goes 
into the stomach, its quantity and its quality. One 
of the errors of civilization is an attempt to map out 
plans of eating—or plans of any sort—to fit all 
cases, when we ought to know that different per¬ 
sons, of different environment, must regulate their 
eating in accordance with such individual condi¬ 
tions. The subject of eating also is one upon which 


104 


PHYSICAL PERFECTION 


volumes have been written and the matter of diet is 
taken up more in detail in Chapter XI. 

The quantity of food to be taken is a matter for 
individual consideration. As a rule, most of us eat 
too much. On that point there is almost unanimous 
agreement. We should remember that diet is not 
so much a question of what we eat as of what we 
assimilate, so it may be set down that overeating 
is the cause of a large majority of cases of disor¬ 
dered stomach. In a small percentage of other 
cases, however, the reverse may be true, especially 
when one who eats but little takes into his stomach 
alcoholic beverages, coffee, tea, nicotine, and other 
poisons. 

I have met many in my practise who have found 
how to get along best on two meals a day, and I 
have met not a few who find one meal a day meets 
their requirements. The good rule to follow in 
this regard is to eat only when you are hungry. 
One of the greatest errors in this regard is to feel 
that one must eat by the clock—at certain hours. 
When one is not hungry enough really to enjoy his 
meal he cannot, as a matter of fact, completely 
digest that meal, for the reason that desire or appe¬ 
tite has an effect on the secretion of gastric and 
other digestive juices. There is considerable science 
in the idea that the desires and emotions increase 
or decrease the flow and quality of the digestive 


STOMACH AND BOWEL DISORDERS 105 


juices. One should never eat when angry, worried 
or grieved. By the same token it must be evident 
also that cheerfulness and laughter at the table aid 
digestion and that a dyspeptic should not only study 
to acquire for himself a healthy mental attitude, 
but should seek the companionship of cheerful per¬ 
sons while eating. 

To drink a cupful of hot water in the morning on 
arising aids considerably in cleansing the stomach 
and bowels of effete matter that has accumulated 
over night. 

The use of drugs, cathartics, pepsin from a pig’s 
stomach, or rennet from a calf’s stomach, produc¬ 
ing an unnatural vitality, is in itself a frequent cause 
of stomach and bowel troubles and their continued 
use is often responsible for an acute condition be¬ 
coming chronic. The fact is certainly significant 
that dyspeptics who will keep on trying this and that 
patent medicine or other artificial stimulant become 
“confirmed dyspeptics.” Their condition usually 
grows worse instead of better, and the ultimate re¬ 
sult is a complete break-down. The best advice, 
therefore, that can be given the sufferer is to dis¬ 
continue the use of such harmful medicines. 

As before intimated, the best treatment for stom¬ 
ach and bowel troubles is, after all, any course that 
will build up one’s vitality and general health in 
a natural way. As such a regimen improves the cir- 


106 


PHYSICAL PERFECTION 


culation, the organs of secretion and digestion must 
perform their functions more naturally, and the 
blood itself must carry nutrition to every part of 
the body. 

While exercises of general character are all val¬ 
uable in stomach and bowel cases, there are many 
of a specific nature which are especially recom¬ 
mended. (See Index to Exercises.) 

In the cure of costiveness the use of cathartics 
cannot be too strongly decried, as they, by per¬ 
forming what the bowel muscles are intended to 
perform, must in time cause a weakening of such 
muscles by disuse. It may be said with entire safety 
that 50 per cent of the cases of chronic constipation 
are caused by the continued employment of cathar¬ 
tics and emetics. As a substitute, to produce an 
evacuation of the bowels, an injection of warm 
water is recommended, the warm injection to be fol¬ 
lowed by cold water, which tends to strengthen the 
bowel walls and muscles. It is far better, however, 
to improve general health through correct habits of 
living. 



XVI 

Goughs—Golds—Catarrh 

S URPRISING indeed is the igorance that 
prevails regarding the nature and causes 
of colds and coughs. In the first place, 
it is impossible to ‘catch a cold.” It is 
not cold air, but impure air, that is the main 
cause of these troubles. When one is in a close 
or vitiated atmosphere and the membranous lin¬ 
ing of head or throat becomes on this account 
irritated or inflamed, it should be readily understood 
that the mucous accumulations must be expelled be¬ 
fore a cure can be effected. When a person has 
really caught his “cold” indoors the relief afforded 
by getting out-doors into a healthier atmosphere is 
to cough up or sneeze out the products of his affec¬ 
tion. These are only symptoms of the real trouble 
which he experiences, but as they are what he feels 
and sees, he ascribes his trouble to the colder, purer 
air which is giving him the relief that Nature pro¬ 
vides for his benefit. Instead of the cough or cold 
being the sufferer’s enemy, it is the best friend he 
could have at such a time. If we did not have such 
means of relief as coughs and colds the mortality 
from such maladies would be frightful to contem¬ 
plate. 


108 


PHYSICAL PERFECTION 


Bronchitis, asthma, and catarrh are really the 
chronic conditions resulting from frequent acute 
attacks and the inability of the system entirely to rid 
itself of the more or less putrid secretions of the 
membranous lining of the head or throat. This 
inability is simply due to a lowered general vitality. 
It must be plain that the true cure lies in increasing 
vitality, in order that the system itself may have 
power to throw off the poisons infecting the delicate 
membranes. Artificial stimulants and spraying and 
smoke treatments cannot accomplish this. Of 
course, treatment that will temporarily cleanse or 
dry up the products of the affection afford relief for 
the time being, but these accumulations must cer¬ 
tainly reappear, for the treatment does not remove 
the cause of the trouble—deficient vitality. 

As this book is devoted to impressing upon the 
reader the importance of natural treatment to im¬ 
prove the general strength and vitality in all condi¬ 
tions, the treatment for colds, coughs, and bronchial 
and catarrhal affections will be found through all 
these pages. It should be emphasized that cold air 
and cold water are among the best treatments for 
colds and coughs, instead of the reverse being true, 
as popularly believed. So pure air in the sleeping 
room at all times, the window being constantly 
open, even in zero weather, is one of the best of 
cures and preventives. Almost equally good treat- 




CO UGHS—COLDS—CA TARRH 


109 


ment for such troubles is the cold bath. (Read 
Chapter IX. on Bathing.) 

Diet, too, has considerable to do with susceptibil¬ 
ity to colds and with their cure. To starve out a 
cold or also a fever, by eating sparingly of foods 
not too rich in proteids, is to be recommended. 
However, strong vitality is the surest preventive of 
pneumonia and consumption. It is gratifying to 
know, in this connection, that in the past few years 
leading physicians have been radically changing 
their methods of treating pneumonia and consump¬ 
tion, the most successful of them realizing that cold 
fresh air stands first as a cure. The pneumonia 
patient, instead of being forced to live in a super¬ 
heated atmosphere, with even the window cracks 
and key-holes stuffed up to prevent the entrance of 
the life-saving ozone, is given just the opposite 
treatment—fresh cold air, cold compresses, and the 
like. 


XVII 


Nervous Ailments 

W E often hear about the “man of 
nerve”—the man who is able to “do 
things,” and it is a fact that the 
man whose nerves are really normal 
is able to accomplish much more than can a 
nerveless man, whatever the field of endeavor. 
Nerve force implies not only physical vitality, 
but an active brain. The brain, as a matter 
of etiology, is part of the nervous system, and 
physicians all recognize the cerebral and spinal 
system as one and the same. Men who amount 
to anything in this world, whatever their line 
of action, have good nerves. Where the 
nerves are diseased or impaired, the patient must 
be weakened mentally as well as physically. 

Nervous troubles are so numerous that a volume 
like this could not begin to describe in detail their 
natural causes, symptoms and effects. These ail¬ 
ments range from what may be termed plain ner¬ 
vousness to insanity. Neuralgia, which is usually 
an acute affection of the nerves, may affect any part 
of the body. The pains, wherever the trouble may 
be located, are most excruciating. When the con¬ 
dition becomes more chronic, however, the pains 




NERVOUS AILMENTS 


111 


are not so severe and one is likely to pay less atten¬ 
tion to his affliction on this account. His trouble in 
its chronic state may be known by another name, as 
sciatica or rheumatism. Hysteria, melancholy, 
hypochondria, and insomnia are other nervous 
troubles. 

Nervous disorders affect different persons differ¬ 
ently. However, there is a distorted mentality, the 
sufferers being subject to unnatural worries and 
fears, frequently imagining things that are non¬ 
existent, and often being suspicious of their own 
best friends. In women the trouble is frequently 
due to the unusual sensitiveness of the female 
organism, tight lacing, or to undue pressure upon 
the hips on account of wearing of garments so sup¬ 
ported instead of from the shoulders. In the case 
of men, business worries and excesses of various 
kinds are the main causes of the trouble. The direct 
cause in any case, after all, is deficient vitality. 
Whatever, therefore tends to lower vitality must 
tend to produce nervous disorders. 

When the vitality is so exhausted that there is 
scarcely a vital spark remaining, the result is ner¬ 
vous exhaustion or nervous prostration, nowadays 
termed neurasthenia. A neurasthenic is the most 
unhappy, the most depressed individual imaginable. 
He is unnatural, and his mind is necessarily filled 
with unnatural fancies. Impending disaster, dis- 


112 


PHYSICAL PERFECTION 


trust of friends, gloomy forebodings, and other 
signs of an unhealthy mind appear. There is almost 
always an aversion to meeting people or at least to 
talking to them. There is a dullness in the head, a 
chronic “brain fag.” The sufferer is startled by 
the least noise and finds it difficult ordinarily to keep 
out of the way of vehicles in a crowded street. 
There is a constant feeling that the head is ready 
to burst, and among busy business men especially, 
this feeling may lead to indulgence in alcoholic 
drinks or stimulating drugs of one kind or another. 
In such cases, of course, one must take more and 
more of this artificial stimulation to produce men¬ 
tal activity, and very often the sufferer goes so far 
that such stimulation will no longer stimulate. He 
imagines that his brain is really dead and that there 
is nothing further for him to “take.” 

We are entitled—every man, woman and child of 
us—to 100 per cent of vitality. If we have any¬ 
thing less than this we must lack nerve force, ner¬ 
vous energy, vital power, or whatever one chooses 
to call this deficiency. To really cure the trouble, 
therefore, there are no anodynes, no “pain-killers” 
that can accomplish anything but harm. If the 
trouble is due to loss of vitality, that lost vitality 
must be regained. There is no other way. There 
is no medicine in the world that can do more than 
aggravate nervous disorder. 


XVIII 


Lessons in Physical 
Culture 

A S a system of exercises that may be 
practised at home the series illustrated 
and described in the following pages is 
probably the most complete and the 
most practical, while at the same time the simplest, 
of any heretofore devised. 

No apparatus of any kind is required, no dumb¬ 
bells, Indian clubs, or weights. In fact, the results 
are far more beneficial without the employment of 
any such mechanical “aids/’ for the reason that they 
defeat one of the main objects of calisthenics— 
relaxation. 

As an illustration: Raising a dumb-bell with the 
hand causes the muscles of the arm to become rigid, 
and in lowering the dumb-bell, the muscles must re¬ 
main at a tension on account of the weight, whereas 
they should relax in order to secure proper results. 

Exercises which alternately tense and relax the 
muscles produce normal development, rather than 
over-development. They make the affected muscles 
or parts more supple—hence assist in the acquire¬ 
ment of poise and grace, in sitting or standing, in 


114 


PHYSICAL PERFECTION 


walking, and in every movement. This is a point 
that women, especially, will appreciate. Such exer¬ 
cises, too, equalize the circulation of the blood, and 
do not overtax the heart. 

Exercises for the Individual 

In general, it may be said that any exercise or 
number of exercises indicated in the lessons which 
follow will benefit any individual in any condition. 
This for the reason that the exercise of any muscle, 
organ, or part of the body must improve the circula¬ 
tion of both blood and nerve fluid, which in turn 
must favorably affect the entire system. There is 
no danger, therefore, of one’s “taking the wrong 
medicine.” 

There are, however, special exercises for special 
purposes by which one may more effectually and 
more promptly obtain the results desired. To aid 
the reader in this direction the Index to Exercises 
on Page 20 has been prepared. By referring to this 
one may readily determine the set of exercises that 
is best adapted to his or her requirements. 

For instance, if one is flat-chested, Exercises 1, 2, 
3, 6, 13, 22, 31, 40, and 41, or several of them, 
should be practised to develop the bust, and the 
lungs as well. For obesity, likewise, a series of ex¬ 
ercises is recommended. 



LESSONS IN PHYSICAL CULTURE 115 


It should be noted, in this connection, that, as a 
rule, an exercise that will reduce a fleshy person 
will build up a thin person. This for the reason 
that the main causes of both conditions are malas- 
similation and imperfect elimination of waste mate¬ 
rial. As the movements indicated for fatness aim 
at correcting the troubles mentioned, thus restoring 
normal functioning of the digestive, assimilative, 
and excretory organs, it must be plain that such 
normal condition will in the case of thin persons 
enable them better to appropriate the nutritive and 
fat-making principles of the food they eat, giving 
them more flesh and greater strength. 

Suggestions Regarding Exercises 

If all muscles and organs were brought into play 
during the day, special exercises would hardly be 
necessary. This is rarely the case, however, as 
civilization tends more and more to get one away 
from Nature in this respect. As different persons, 
of different constitutions, different occupations, and 
different habits, neglect properly to develop differ¬ 
ent organs or parts of the body, it is important that 
the individual ascertain his deficiencies in this re¬ 
gard and then select the exercises which will best 
meet his own requirements. Even where the exer¬ 
cises for a specific deficiency or ailment are enum¬ 
erated, one must use his judgment to some extent 


116 


PHYSICAL PERFECTION 


as to just which of these movements are best suited 
for his own condition, and also as to the length of 
time he should devote to them. 

For instance, the Index to Exercises on Page 20 
names fifteen different exercises for constipation. 
A person of strong physique may be able to go 
through all of these movements, giving a few min¬ 
utes to each, one after another. Another person, 
through lack of strength, or on account of obesity 
or some deformity, may find it difficult to practise 
more than two or three of these exercises, at least 
in starting. 

So, in the absence of a physical culture instructor, 
one must exercise his own judgment to some extent, 
as before intimated, in following the instructions 
which seem to fit his own requirements. 

This is true, too, in regard to the length of time 
to devote to the daily exercise. In the majority of 
cases, however, from fifteen to thirty minutes, both 
morning and evening, will be safe and will suffice. 
One should be guided in this respect largely by the 
amount of exercises required to cause fatigue. 

Fatigue is produced when any large group of 
muscles is set in active operation, and is due to the 
fact that when such muscles are at work they throw 
into the blood a considerable quantity of carbonic 
acid gas, which is poisonous and must be eliminated 
through the lungs. The greater the amount of this 


LESSONS IN PHYSICAL CULTURE 117 


gas generated and forced into the blood the more 
rapid becomes the breathing. It follows that one 
should stop exercising when fatigued. 

The rapidity of the movements is an important 
consideration, and a point that is usually overlooked 
by physical culture instructors. In taking any ex¬ 
ercise those inclined to stoutness should make the 
motions as rapidly as possible. This for the reason 
that quickness of movement tends to deoxidize the 
blood, which eats or burns up waste tissue and sur¬ 
plus fat. Thin persons should exercise slowly, 
which slowness brings about only a normal circula¬ 
tion (usually lacking in such individuals), and this 
aids in nourishing undeveloped muscles and parts, 
building them up healthfully and naturally. 

The best times to exercise are immediately upon 
arising from bed and just before retiring. 

Do not eat immediately after exercising. Give 
the circulation and the breathing an opportunity to 
get back to normal. 

Do not exercise immediately after eating, as this 
may interfere with digestion. Wait at least an hour 
after your meal before starting in. 

Wear the least possible clothing when exercising 
—only your night gown or pajama—or, better, 
nothing at all. This will permit freedom of move¬ 
ment and permit the air to get to the skin. 

Have fresh air about you when exercising. If in- 


118 


PHYSICAL PERFECTION 


doors, be as near an open window as possible. The 
lungs require more oxygen during exercise. Be¬ 
sides, the air, especially if cold, is the best tonic 
possible. Don’t be afraid of “catching cold”—the 
cold air is one of the best cures and preventives of 
colds, sore throats, and bronchial affections. If 
much debilitated or feverish, however, the window 
may be left down in starting the exercises and then 
raised after the body has increased in warmth. 

If sunlight is available, by all means take advan¬ 
tage of it. The sun’s rays provide better medicine 
than anything in the materia medica. 

If your exercising induces perspiration, so much 
the better. To keep the pores open and active is 
one of the best means of eliminating effete matter, 
and of curing and preventing disease. 

Upon finishing your exercises, jump into a tub of 
cold water or take a cold shower. A minute or two 
of this will suffice. If you are afraid of the shock 
sponge your body off with cold water. The shock 
itself is, however, beneficial on account of its tonic 
effect—fine for the nerves, and the blood, and the 
whole organism. 

NOTE.—All of the exercises given in the follow- 
ing pages are intended for both men and women. 
Do not become confused in this regard on account 
of some of the illustrations representing women and 
others men. 


ILLUSTRATED 
LESSONS IN 
PHYSICAL CULTURE 


For complete index to the following 

exercises, indicating which should be employed 
for the relief of various morbid or abnormal 
conditions, see page 20 


120 


PHYSICAL PERFECTION 



Fig-. 3 












LESSONS IN PHYSICAL CULTURE 121 


Lesson 1 

To Increase Lung Capacity and Develop the Bust 

The lungs cannot be properly developed by 
breathing exercises alone. This for the reason 
that the act of breathing ordinarily is involun¬ 
tary. If the pectoral or chest muscles are raised 
permanently to make more room for the respira¬ 
tory organs, as will be the case when they are 
rightly developed, the lungs involuntarily will 
expand, with normal breathing, to fill out the ad¬ 
ditional space made for them. Breathing deeper 
than normal at the same time will help in this 
direction. This is a point overlooked by many 
physical culturists. 

Flat-chested women will find this exercise of 
inestimable value as a bust developer. 

This exercise should be practised also to de¬ 
velop the shoulders. 

EXERCISE—Assume the correct standing po¬ 
sition (see Fig. 1, page 48). With arms out¬ 
stretched, try to have every muscle in body tense. 
Then force the hands together, holding the arms 
rigid. Then throw the arms back as far as possi¬ 
ble; then to the front again. Keep the hands at 
the shoulder level throughout. Inhale as the 
arms are brought back and exhale as they come 
together. 


122 


PHYSICAL PERFECTION 







LESSONS IN PHYSICAL CULTURE 123 


Lesson 2 

To Develop the Chest and Shoulders, and the Muscles 
of the Back 

This is an accompaniment to Lesson No. 1. 
In addition to aiding in the development of the 
chest and shoulder muscles, it brings into play 
the muscles of the back, especially those of the 
upper back. 

Those subject to pains between the shoulder 
blades will find here an excellent remedy. 

EXERCISE—Assume correct standing posi¬ 
tion (see Fig. 1, page 48), with the hands out¬ 
stretched and slightly curved. Keep the muscles 
rigid. Then quickly raise the arms vertically to 
a position above the head as indicated in Fig. 4. 
Inhale when raising the arms; exhale when low¬ 
ering them. 


124 


PHYSICAL PERFECTION 



Fig:. 5 












LESSONS IN PHYSICAL CULTURE 125 


/ 

Lesson 3 

To Increase Breathing Capacity. Especially Promoting 
Intercostal Respiration 

This exercise aids in producing the results in¬ 
dicated for Lesson No. 1. In fact, the first three 
are companion exercises, and should be practised 
one after another where any or all of the mus¬ 
cles of chest, shoulders, or upper back are insuffi¬ 
ciently developed, or if the lung capacity is not 
up to normal. 

No. 3 aids particularly in developing the mus¬ 
cles between the ribs (intercostal muscles), thus 
also increasing intercostal breathing, whereby the 
chest is alternately enlarged and contracted by 
the muscles referred to. 

EXERCISE—Take the correct standing posi¬ 
tion, with arms at sides, as shown in illustrations 
(Figs. 1 and 5). Raise the arms above the head 
quickly, describing a circle; keep muscles rigid. 
Then return to first position, and repeat exercise. 
Inhale when raising arms; exhale when lowering 
them. 


126 


PHYSICAL PERFECTION 



Fig. 6 


LESSONS IN PHYSICAL CULTURE 127 


✓ 

Lesson 4 

For a Graceful Carriage, to Restore Normal Waist Line, 
and to Strengthen the Back 

The advantages of this exercise are many. As 
strengthening the muscles of the back, it is rec¬ 
ommended to those who suffer from pains in the 
small of the back. 

This also is an excellent treatment for constipa¬ 
tion, kidney trouble and obesity. 

By inducing a healthy circulation to the region 
involved it assists in either reducing or building 
up the waist, according to the condition. 

It is a valuable aid in the acquirement of sup¬ 
pleness and a graceful carriage. 

EXERCISE—Take the correct standing posi¬ 
tion (page 48). Place the hands on the hips, and 
with the knees rigid, bend forward slowly from 
the waist until a strain is felt in the calves of the 
legs. Keep the head up and the chest out, as 
shown in the illustration (Fig. 6). Rise slowly 
to the original position and then bend backward 
as far as possible, bending at the knees as you 
bend backward. Exhale when bending forward; 
inhale when coming back. 


128 


PHYSICAL PERFECTION 



Pig: 7 






LESSONS IN PHYSICAL CULTURE 129 


Lesson 5 

To Develop the Arms and Shoulders 

A fine exercise for the development of all the 
muscles of the arm, as well as those of the 
shoulder. Recommended especially to women 
desirous of obtaining beautifully rounded shoul¬ 
ders. 

Of value also to thin persons and to those of 
weak lungs. (For other lung exercises see Les¬ 
sons 1, 2, 3, and 13.) 

EXERCISE—Take the correct standing posi¬ 
tion. Bring the fists to the shoulders and raise 
the arms quickly to full length, as shown in Fig. 
7. Then quickly jerk them down. Inhale as 
arms are raised, and exhale as you lower them. 


130 


PHYSICAL , PERFECTION 



V 




















LESSONS IN PHYSICAL CULTURE 131 


Lesson 6 

For Hollow Chest and Weak Shoulder Muscles 

The continued practise of this lesson will soon 
fill out a hollow chest. For this purpose the exer¬ 
cise should be taken in connection with Nos. 1, 
2, 3, and 5. 

An excellent treatment for those subject to 
pains in the shoulders. 

EXERCISE—Take the position with arms out¬ 
stretched as shown in Fig. 8. Then quickly trace 
a circle with each fist by turning the arms as in¬ 
dicated. Allow the shoulders to move with the 
arms. Mouth closed. 


132 


PHYSICAL PERFECTION 




Fifir. 9 









LESSONS IN PHYSICAL CULTURE 133 


Lesson 7 

To Develop the Muscles of the Abdomen, Back and Thighs 

Strengthens every muscle in the back. Stops 

backaches. 

Strengthens also the muscles and ligaments of 
the pelvic region. 

An aid to digestion. 

Excellent for constipation. 

Will reduce obesity, and add weight to thin per¬ 
sons. This exercise produces these apparently 
opposite results in different persons by its ef¬ 
fect on the organs of digestion and assimilation, 
aiding in restoring their normal functioning. 

EXERCISE—Place the right foot about eigh¬ 
teen inches to the front. Raise the arms as shown 
in Fig. 9, and touch the floor as indicated. Keep 
the left knee rigid, but bend the right slightly. 
Exhale when bending; inhale when rising. 


134 


PHYSICAL PERFECTION 









LESSONS IN PHYSICAL CULTURE 135 


Lesson 8 

To Strengthen the Fingers and Wrists 

Of particular value to those learning the art of 
self-defense, and those whose hands, fingers or 
wrists become numb, tired, or strained at times 
on account of the work they do—as writers, type¬ 
writer operators, needle-workers, etc. 

Recommended to those suffering from writer’s 
cramp, rheumatism in the joints involved, etc. 

EXERCISE—Assume correct standing posi¬ 
tion. With arms about three inches from the 
sides, close your hands and bend at the wrists 
in toward the sides of the body. Curve the hands 
well up, then bend outward in the opposite di¬ 
rection, as shown in Fig. 10. This exercise should 
be done quickly. 


136 


PHYSICAL PERFECTION 


t 



\ 








LESSONS IN PHYSICAL CULTURE 137 


Lesson 9 

To Develop the Biceps 

The advantages of developing the biceps, or 
the upper muscles of the arms, are so many, and 
so well appreciated by most persons, as hardly 
to warrant elaboration on the value of this ex¬ 
ercise. 

Any one whose occupation requires lifting, 
pulling, or pushing can, of course, do more work, 
and heavier work, with less fatigue, the more his 
biceps are developed. 

In learning the manly —and womanly — art 
of self-defense, it is these muscles that must be 
strengthened above all others. 

EXERCISE—Assume correct standing posi¬ 
tion. Extend the arms straight out from the 
shoulders, as shown in Fig. 11, fingers slightly 
curved and as tense as possible. Then bend at 
the elbows. Bring the hands back as far as pos¬ 
sible. Then straighten the arms well out. This 
exercise should be done slowly. In order to ob¬ 
tain best results, all muscles of the body should 
be as tense as possible. Strain the muscles of 
the arms to the very highest tension. 


138 


PHYSICAL PERFECTION 



i 





LESSONS IN PHYSICAL CULTURE 139 


Lesson 10 

To Strengthen the Wrists and Hands 

This exercise is similar in results to Nos. 8 and 
11, at least so far as the fingers, hands and wrists 
are concerned. In addition, this particular exer¬ 
cise is of value in developing the triceps and the 
muscles of the forearm. 

EXERCISE—Take the correct standing posi¬ 
tion, as shown in Figs. 1 and 12, with the arms 
about two inches from the sides. Open and close 
the hands quickly, stretching the fingers and fore¬ 
arm muscles to the very highest possible tension. 


140 


PHYSICAL PERFECTION 



Fie. 13 







LESSONS IN PHYSICAL CULTURE 141 


Lesson 11 

To Develop the Biceps and Strengthen the Wrists 

This and the three preceding lessons provide 
effective exercises for the development and 
strengthening of the hands and arms from fin¬ 
gers to shoulders. These exercises, practised 
alternately, every day, in a short time will in¬ 
crease wonderfully the strength of the striking 
and lifting muscles. 

This lesson, No. 11, as indicated, involves par¬ 
ticularly the wrists and the muscles of the upper 
arm. 

EXERCISE—Take the position as shown in 
Fig. 13, arms at the sides, fingers slightly curved 
and as tense as possible. Bend each arm alter¬ 
nately at the elbows. Bring the fists back as far 
as you can. Then straighten the arms well out 
as you lower them. This exercise should be 
practised slowly. In order to obtain the best re¬ 
sults, all muscles of the body should be as tense 
as possible. Strain the muscles of the arms to the 
very highest tension. 


142 


PHYSICAL PERFECTION 



Flsr. 14 







LESSONS IN PHYSICAL CULTURE 143 


* 


Lesson 12 

To Strengthen the Shoulders 

For the purpose indicated, it is advisable to 
practise this movement in connection with Ex¬ 
ercises 2, 5, and 6. 

This exercise is of particular value where there 
is a displacement at the shoulders of muscles, lig¬ 
aments, or nerves, as not infrequently is the case, 
owing to overstraining or some other cause. 

It will be apparent that the movement pre¬ 
scribed must to some extent strengthen the 
wrists also. 

EXERCISE—Take the correct standing posi¬ 
tion, with arms outstretched, as shown in Fig. 14. 
Keep the muscles of the arms rigid. Twist the 
arms as indicated, until a strain is felt at the 
shoulders. 


144 


PHYSICAL PERFECTION 



Fig:. IS 




LESSONS IN PHYSICAL CULTURE 145 


y 

Lesson 13 

To Develop the Muscles of the Upper Body 

This movement involves particularly the mus¬ 
cles of the chest, upper back, upper arms, and 
shoulders. 

To an extent it is a good exercise for the lungs, 
also, and will be found beneficial in cases of ab¬ 
normal thinness. 

EXERCISE—Take the position shown in Fig. 
15, and raise the arms directly to the front until 
they are in a parallel position and level with the 
shoulders. With slightly curved fingers jerk the 
arms back as far as possible by bending at the 
elbows. Keep every muscle of the body tense. 
Inhale as you begin and exhale as you jerk the 
arms back. 


146 


PHYSICAL PERFECTION 



Fig:. 16 








LESSONS IN PHYSICAL CULTURE 147 


Lesson 14 

For the Waist, Thighs, Back, Kidneys 

Besides being an excellent exercise for devel¬ 
opment of the muscles of back and hips, it is one 
of the best movements for the improvement of 
the general circulation, and the acquirement of 
shapely thighs and waist. 

Strengthens weak backs. 

Aids the kidneys in the performance of their 
natural functions. Likewise the bowels. 

An effective treatment for both obesity and 
leanness. (See also Lesson No. 4.) 

EXERCISE—Place the left foot about eighteen 
inches to the front. Raise the arms as shown in 
Fig. 16; then touch the floor as indicated. Keep 
the right knee rigid, but bend the left slightly. 
Exhale when bending; inhale when rising. 


148 


PHYSICAL PERFECTION 



Fig. 17 








LESSONS IN PHYSICAL CULTURE 149 


Lesson 15 

To Develop the Neck Muscles 

This exercise not only strengthens the muscles 
of the neck, but makes the latter more supple— 
an aid to the acquirement of natural carriage. 

An aid also to the relieving of congestion in 
the head and the cure of headache. 

Develops thin necks. 

EXERCISE—Take the correct standing posi¬ 
tion, the hands on the hips, as shown in Fig. 17. 
Then alternately bend the head from side to side 
as far as possible. 


150 


PHYSICAL PERFECTION 



Fitf. 18 





LESSONS IN PHYSICAL CULTURE 151 


Lesson 16 

For Thin and Scrawny Necks 

Produces results similar to Exercises 15 and 
17. Practise the three exercises one after another 
to obtain best results. 

EXERCISE—Assume the correct standing po¬ 
sition and alternately turn the head slowly to 
the right and left as far as possible, as shown in 
Fig. 18, keeping the muscles of the neck rigid. 


152 


PHYSICAL PERFECTION 







LESSONS IN PHYSICAL CULTURE 153 


Lesson 17 

To Relieve Congestion in the Head 

Produces results similar to the two preceding 
exercises. This is probably the best of the three, 
however, for the purpose of relieving cranial con¬ 
gestion, as it stretches particularly the muscles, 
veins, and nerves in the region of the base of the 
brain. 

EXERCISE—Take the correct standing posi¬ 
tion (Fig. 19). Bend the head forward until the 
chin touches the chest; then backward as far as 
possible. 


154 


PHYSICAL PERFECTION 



Fitr 20 







LESSONS IN PHYSICAL CULTURE 155 


Lesson 18 

For Inactive Liver, and Development of the 
Intercostal and Side Muscles 

Shakes up the lazy liver, making it do its work 
without harmful after-effects, as follow when 
“liver pills” and other drugs are used. 

An excellent exercise for the side muscles and 
those between the ribs, as well as for all the ab¬ 
dominal organs. 

Recommended particularly for costiveness. 

EXERCISE—Take the correct standing posi¬ 
tion. Then bend from side to side as shown in 
Fig. 20. Keep the lower limbs rigid, bending only 
at the waist. 


1S6 


PHYSICAL PERFECTION 



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LESSONS IN PHYSICAL CULTURE 157 


Lesson 19 

For the Pelvic Organs, Kidneys, Liver, and Bowels 

Produces results similar to the preceding ex¬ 
ercise—and more. A more vigorous exercise for 
the liver and bowels and, in addition, an excellent 
treatment for weak kidneys, bladder, and sexual 
organs. 

One of the best possible treatments for a fat, 
flabby abdomen. 

EXERCISE—Stand with the feet eighteen 
inches apart as shown in Fig. 21. Touch the floor 
on either side alternately, first with your left, 
then with your right hand. Try to keep the body 
as rigid as possible. Exhale as you touch the 
floor; inhale as you rise. 


158 


PHYSICAL PERFECTION 









LESSONS IN PHYSICAL CULTURE 159 


Lesson 20 

To Broaden the Shoulders 

Develops and strengthens the shoulders, and, 
to a slight extent, the neck and chest also. 

Makes stiff shoulders more flexible. Affords 
ready relief in case of pain between the shoulder 
blades. 

Broadens narrow shoulders. Recommended 
particularly for thin persons. 

EXERCISE—Take the correct standing posi¬ 
tion and raise the shoulders as high as possible; 
then slowly let them down again. Inhale as you 
rise; exhale as you lower them. 


160 


PHYSICAL PERFECTION 



Fig. 23 









LESSONS IN PHYSICAL CULTURE 161 


Lesson 21 

For Obesity, Weak Back, Constipation 

An excellent treatment for these ailments. 

Strengthens the muscles of the back and 
thighs; also those involving the sexual organs. 

Highly recommended where circulation is slug¬ 
gish. 

EXERCISE—Take the correct standing posi¬ 
tion as illustrated in Fig. 23. Then, with knees 
rigid, try to touch the floor in front. Exhale 
while stooping; inhale when rising. 


162 


PHYSICAL PERFECTION 



Fig:. 24 













LESSONS IN PHYSICAL CULTURE 163 


Lesion 22 

To Reduce Fleshy Persons 

This is one of the surest and quickest means 
of removing surplus flesh. 

Good, also, to increase circulation and breath¬ 
ing capacity, and to strengthen the chest muscle* 
and shoulders. 

EXERCISE—Take the position as shown in 
Fig. 24. With arms rigid and slightly curved, 
swing them right and left quickly in front of you, 
keeping all muscles of the body tense; mouth 
closed, breathing deeply through the nose. 


164 


PHYSICAL PERFECTION 













LESSONS IN PHYSICAL CULTURE 165 


Lesson 23 

To Develop the Calves and Thighs 

Gives symmetry and strength to the calf of the 
leg and the thigh. 

Develops the quadriceps, and strengthens the 
pelvic ligaments and muscles. 

If those who are obliged to be “on their feet” 
a good deal will practise this exercise, they will 
be able after awhile to walk or stand without 
becoming so easily fatigued. 

EXERCISE—Place your hands on the back of 
a chair or any other object that may be con¬ 
venient. Rise on your toes; then sink down to 
the floor, as shown in Fig. 25. Slowly rise to the 
standing position without allowing the heels to 
touch the floor. The object of placing your hands 
on the back of a chair is to help preserve your 
balance. Inhale when rising, exhale when squat¬ 
ting. 


166 


PHYSICAL PERFECTION 



Pier. 26 




LESSONS IN PHYSICAL CULTURE 167 


Lesson 24 

To Strengthen the Calves and Feet 

Similar in results to the previous exercise. The 
two should be practised alternately 

Excellent to strengthen not only the muscles 
and ligaments of the lower leg, but also those of 
the feet. By inducing increased circulation in the 
latter this is a good remedy for cold feet; likewise 
for gout. 

The instructions in this and Lesson 23 should 
be of particular value to thin persons. 

EXERCISE—Take the correct standing posi¬ 
tion, with hands on hips, as shown in Fig. 26. 
Then rise on the toes. Continue this exercise 
until a strain is felt in the calves of the legs. 


168 


PHYSICAL PERFECTION 



Fifjr. 27 






LESSONS IN PHYSICAL CULTURE 169 


Lesson 25 

For Obesity, Constipation, Backache 

This exercise produces results similar to those 
of Exercise 21. It may be an easier lesson for 
stout persons to start with, however, on account 
of the spreading of the legs rendering it less 
difficult to touch the floor with the hands. 

EXERCISE—Take the correct standing posi¬ 
tion, with arms raised, as shown in Fig. 27. Then 
spread the feet quickly about 18 inches apart, and 
simultaneously swing the arms forward and 
down, touching the floor, bending at the waist. 
As you bring the arms up again, and the feet to¬ 
gether, take a deep breath. Exhale as you lower 
them, mouth closed. 


170 


PHYSICAL PERFECTION 





LESSONS IN PHYSICAL CULTURE 171 


Lesson 26 

To Develop the Extensor and Thigh Muscles 

Besides developing these muscles, the limbs are 
made more flexible, a valuable aid to the acquire¬ 
ment of grace in walking and in carrying the 
body. 

Where one is troubled with stiffness in the legs, 
or rheumatism, or “kinks” at times in the liga¬ 
ments of the legs, this is an excellent remedy. 

Also for varicose veins, which condition af¬ 
fects the lower limbs more frequently than any 
other portion of the body. 

Where one leg is shorter than the other that 
leg alone should be exercised, as the stretching 
of the extensor muscles will in some cases result 
in the lengthening of a crippled limb. 

EXERCISE—Take the correct standing posi¬ 
tion, with hands on hips, as shown in Fig. 28. 
Keep the knees rigid and swing the right leg to 
the right as high as possible; then slowly lower 
to the first position. Repeat with the left leg. 


PHYSICAL PERFECTION 







LESSONS IN PHYSICAL CULTURE 173 


Lesson 27 

For the Knee and Leg Muscles 

Develops and strengthens all the leg muscles, 
and especially the calves. 

Relieves stiffness in the knees. 

Where uric acid crystals have lodged in one 
of the knee joints, this is an effective means of 
dissolving the deposit and relieving the resultant 
rheumatism. 

EXERCISE—Take the correct standing posi¬ 
tion, with hands on hips, as shown in Fig. 29. 
Then alternately draw the legs up and back, 
bending at the knees only, as indicated. This ex¬ 
ercise should be practised quickly, without allow¬ 
ing the heels to touch the floor. 


174 


PHYSICAL PERFECTION 



Pie. 30 







LESSONS IN PHYSICAL CULTURE 175 


Lesson 28 

Exaggeration of the Exercise of Walking Up-stairs 

Has many beneficial results—develops the leg 
muscles, especially those of the upper leg; lubri¬ 
cates the knee joints; strengthens the lungs; re¬ 
duces obesity; relieves constipation; an aid to 
grace in walking. 

EXERCISE—Take the correct standing posi¬ 
tion, with arms at the sides as shown in Fig. 30. 
Then alternately raise each knee in exaggeration 
of the action of going up stairs. Practice this 
until the knees can be made to strike the chest. 
As the knees are drawn upward, exhale; inhale as 
you lower them, mouth closed. 


176 


PHYSICAL PERFECTION 














LESSONS IN PHYSICAL CULTURE 177 


Lesson 29 

To Strengthen the Muscles of the Leg and Thigh 

Produces results similar to Exercise 26, affect¬ 
ing all the muscles of the leg and thigh. 

Strengthens the ligaments and muscles of the 
pelvic region. 

A preventive of rupture. 

EXERCISE—Take the correct standing posi¬ 
tion and place the hands on the hips as shown in 
Fig. 31. Keep the knees rigid and swing the left 
leg to the front as high as possible. Then lower 
it slowly to the first position. Repeat with right 
leg. 






178 


PHYSICAL PERFECTION 





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Fig:. 32 












LESSONS IN PHYSICAL CULTURE 179 


Lesson 30 

To Stretch the Muscles of the Trunk and Limbs 

A good, all-round exercise for almost every 
condition. Stretches and relaxes particularly the 
muscles of back, arms and legs. 

Promotes circulation, aids digestion, relieves 
constipation, reduces fleshy persons, and builds 
up thin persons. 

Makes the body more supple and elastic, es¬ 
pecially at the waist line. 

EXERCISE—Take the correct standing posi¬ 
tion. Lower the upper part of the body, keep¬ 
ing the knees rigid until the hands touch the 
floor, bending at the waist only. Exhale when 
stooping; inhale when rising. 


180 


PHYSICAL PERFECTION 




« 

\ 









Fig. 33 








LESSONS IN PHYSICAL CULTURE 181 


Lesson 31 

An All-Round Muscle-Builder 

One of the best exercises for all-round develop¬ 
ment—though affecting particularly the muscles 
of the arms and hands, shoulders and back, chest 
and abdomen. 

An excellent tonic for the nervous system. 

A lung developer par excellence. 

This exercise will put flesh on thin persons. 

EXERCISE—Face the floor with the weight of 
the body on the palms and toes. Let the palms 
be directly below the shoulders and a shoulder’s 
width apart. Keep the head up, body rigid, and 
chest out. Sink slowly down to the floor. Then 
push up slowly to the first position until the arms 
are straight. Exhale going down; inhale as you 
rise. 


182 PHYSICAL PERFECTION 


















LESSONS IN PHYSICAL CULTURE 183 


IS* 

Lesson 32 

To Reduce Obesity and Develop the Abdominal Muscles 

One of the best exercises for these purposes. 
By bending at the waist it attacks obesity at its 
least vulnerable point, the abdomen. The or¬ 
gans of the abdominal cavity are induced better 
to perform their natural functions, and thus ac¬ 
cumulations of fat and foreign matter are reduced 
in the most natural way. 

It is obvious that this movement must 
strengthen the abdominal muscles, and other 
muscles incidentally. 

EXERCISE—Lie with your back flat on the 
floor and clasp the hands behind the head. Then 
place your feet under a bed or couch. Then rise 
to sitting position as shown in Fig. 34. Keep the 
body perfectly rigid, bending only at the waist. 
Inhale as you slowly sink back; exhale as you 
rise. 


FIs:. 35 


184 


PHYSICAL PERFECTION 














LESSONS IN PHYSICAL CULTURE 185 


Lesson 33 

For the Same Results as the Previous Lesson 

The lessons from 32 to 37, inclusive, are all of 
particular value to fat persons, both men and 
women. The very fleshy will find some of the 
exercises difficult to practise at first; they should, 
of course, start with the exercises that can be 
taken with the least exertion; continued practise 
will make the severest lesson “come easy” after 
a time. 

EXERCISE—Lie with your back flat on the 
floor, arms underneath, palms down, as shown in 
Fig. 35. With the knees rigid, bring both legs up 
and as far as possible, then slowly lower to first 
position. Inhale as legs are raised; exhale as you 
lower them. 


186 PHYSICAL PERFECTION 
























LESSONS IN PHYSICAL CULTURE 187 


y 

Lesson 34 

For the Same Results as Lessons 32 and 33 

This is very similar to Exercise 32. The latter, 
however, may be difficult at first for those who 
are full-chested and fleshy about the upper back. 
In such cases the position of the arms as indi¬ 
cated for Exercise 34 will be found more con¬ 
venient. 

EXERCISE—Lie with your back flat on the 
floor. Fold your arms over your chest and place 
your feet under a bed or couch. Then rise to the 
sitting position, as shown in Fig. 36. Keep the 
body perfectly rigid, bending only at the waist. 
Inhale as you slowly sink back; exhale as you 
rise. 


188 


PHYSICAL PERFECTION 








LESSONS IN PHYSICAL CULTURE 189 


Lesson 35 

For the Same Results as Lessons 32, 33, and 34 

Similar to Exercise No. 33, though more diffi¬ 
cult for those possessing unusually fleshy abdo¬ 
mens. 

An excellent treatment for constipation. 

EXERCISE—Lie with the back flat on the 
floor, your arms straight under you, palms on 
the floor. You will then be resting on the back 
of the hands. Raise both legs up as far back as 
possible by bending at the knees. Then lower the 
legs to the first position. Do not let the legs 
drop. Inhale as the legs are drawn back; exhale 
as you lower them. 


190 


PHYSICAL PERFECTION 










LESSONS IN PHYSICAL CULTURE 191 




Lesson 36 

For the Same Results as Lessons 32, 33, 34, and 35 

Similar to 32 and 34, though a little more se¬ 
vere for those who are very fleshy, since this ex¬ 
ercise requires them to bend over farther. 

EXERCISE—Lie with the back flat on the 
floor, as shown in Fig. 38, with arms outstretched. 
Then rise quickly and touch your toes. Inhale 
going back; exhale as you touch your toes. 



Fig. 39 


192 


PHYSICAL PERFECTION 



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Sh* * 





LESSONS IN PHYSICAL CULTURE 193 


Lesson 37 

For the Same Results as the Five Lessons Preceding 

A variation of Exercise 36. 

The series of exercises from 32 to 37 provide 
probably the best home treatment for obesity 
ever devised. These exercises will accomplish 
more, in less time, than any medicine—and with¬ 
out harmful after-effects. 

The same series is highly recommended to suf¬ 
ferers from constipation and sexual weakness. 

EXERCISE—Lie with the back flat on the 
floor and with the arms straight and under you. 
The palms should be on the floor. Push yourself 
up to a sitting position, keeping the legs perfectly 
rigid. Straighten the arms well out, as shown in 
Fig. 39. Exhale going up; inhale going down. 


194 


PHYSICAL PERFECTION 



Flfif. 40 







LESSONS IN PHYSICAL CULTURE 195 


Lesson 38 

Rope Skipping Without a Rope 

A healthful exercise, bringing into play all the 
muscles of the leg, feet and hips. 

Increases the breathing capacity. 

An excellent exercise for the acquirement of 
suppleness and naturalness in the carriage of the 
body when standing or walking. 

EXERCISE—Simply skip over an imaginary 
rope in a natural way, as if the rope actually were 
being turned for you. Skip with the right foot 
first, following with the left, counting each jump 
until you have reached twelve. Then reverse the 
feet, starting with the left and following with the 
right and counting up to twelve. Continue this 
exercise, alternating the steps, until fairly tired. 
Hold the body erect, but pay no attention to the 
position of the arms and hands, letting them 
swing naturally. 


PHYSICAL PERFECTION 



Fig. 41 








LESSONS IN PHYSICAL CULTURE 197 


Lesson 39 

The Benefits of Running 

The benefits of running, practised in modera¬ 
tion, are too well known to require enumeration 
or elucidation. The principal results are the de¬ 
velopment of the muscles of the lower extremi¬ 
ties; improvement of the circulation; a shaking 
up of the liver, stomach, and other internal or¬ 
gans; increase of breathing capacity, and facili¬ 
tated elimination of waste matter by the pores. 

If the following running exercise be practised 
according to directions, one may derive prac¬ 
tically the same benefits as from running out of 
doors. 

EXERCISE—Practise this exercise preferably 
in the morning on arising, and with only the 
night clothes on—or entirely nude in warm 
weather. Stand by an open window. Arms bent 
at elbow, as indicated, and fists clenched. Then 
raise and lower the legs alternately, and in rapid 
succession as though actually running. Increase 
the speed as you progress, and if this will induce 
perspiration, so much the better. On ceasing, 
sponge off the body with cold water and rub dry 
with a rough towel or the bare hands. Then lie 
down a few minutes, with a covering, until pulse 
and respiration become normal. 




198 


PHYSICAL PERFECTION 



Fig. 42 












LESSONS IN PHYSICAL CULTURE 199 


Lesson 40 

For the Suppleness of the Body 

This is a good all-round exercise for the im¬ 
provement of the figure and the acquirement of 
grace in carrying the body, inasmuch as it “lim¬ 
bers up” practically all of the joints from neck to 
toe. 

An excellent leg developer. 

EXERCISE—Move forward quickly with the 
right leg, stretching right arm forward and the 
left arm back, both arms at right angles with the 
body. Bend down and twist the body so that the 
right hand will touch the floor and the left be 
raised directly upward. Then assume the upright 
position and repeat the exercise with the left side. 


200 


PHYSICAL PERFECTION 



Fig. 43 















LESSONS IN PHYSICAL CULTURE 201 


Lesson 41 

Correct Sitting Posture 

Those who sit improperly are subject to dif¬ 
ferent ailments, due to the unnatural posture 
forcing the internal organs out of their normal 
positions and interfering with their proper func¬ 
tioning. 

The natural posture is a preventive, therefore, 

of internal derangements, as well as round shoul¬ 
ders, hump backs, and spinal curvature. It also 
permits easy breathing, as well as normal circu¬ 
lation of the blood. 

Grace and poise of carriage are influenced to 
no small extent by the way one sits. 

EXERCISE—To sit correctly, assume an erect 
attitude as shown in Fig. 43. Do not allow the 
chin to drop on the chest, and do not permit the 
abdomen to protrude. Sit well back in the chair, 
but do not allow the shoulders to touch the back. 
Backward and forward movements should be 
from the hips and not from the waist line. Re¬ 
laxation and change of position may be neces¬ 
sary when sitting for any length of time, but 
crossing the knees or showing the soles of the 
feet are undesirable. 




202 PHYSICAL PERFECTION 



Fig. 44—Sylvester J. Simon 



PHYSICAL PERFECTION 


203 



Figr. 45—Sylvester J. Simon 


























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